Vital Fluids
by Ink Child
Summary: Sci-Fi AU: "Tears, that is what sustains me. Weeping, gnashing of teeth, despair." He snarled. "If you are seeking mercy, you will find none." Her eyes were dry, infuriating in her calm. "You already showed me mercy when you spared my sister's life." He had never been silenced before. Change, primal and terrifying, had begun.
1. Book One:Bloods

_**Hello dear ones,**_

 _ **I must apologize. I know I have been missing for some time. I have received so many messages asking about my well being and the pulse of my stories. Let me tell you all that I am well or as well as a person can be with severe terrifying writers block.**_

 _ **Switch-a-Roo, Meet Cute, Into the Black and Paint With Words have been stagnant for me for a little while. Only this week have I started to feel the stirrings for them a little. I cannot guarantee that I will update soon or that it will be any good when I do. I can guarantee that I have not given up on them though. :)**_

 _ **Other ideas have been festering in my mind with a little more energy and so I may indulge those, in the hope of breaking my block on all the others.**_

 _ **This is one of them. Also, I wanted to post something so that you guys would know I am in fact still alive and not disappearing for another decade.**_

 _ **Much, much love.**_

 _ **Inky**_

 _ **PS.**_

 _ **This fic has no set number of chapters, and a very loose plotline. It is an attempt at aggressive world building, as I have not done any in a very long time. I can see weaknesses all over the place already but always welcome more input from readers.**_

 _ **Notes on the fic:**_

 _ **-Elbow blades are short swords about forearm wide, that have a hilt that comes out of the blade in an L shape. They are spun in the hands of the wielder. In the most popular version of them they are used by a character named Talim in SoulCalibur.**_

 _ **-A glaive, for those of you who don't know is a heavy rod with a soft curve blade at the end- not a scythe or a spear. It has a counter weight on the other end, sometimes as a smaller blade.**_

* * *

 _Bloods_

In a sky star-pricked and brooding she watched the sailing shift of the humanoid comet searing towards the soil below.

Eyes blessed with the sharpness of predators traced it's descent until the limbs were visible within the flames, until the agony he endured for birth into their atmosphere was tangible through the fall.

The wings would be charred black by the inferno of crossing into the Veil Lands. It would take more of their elegant curves to have the same potency as their pearl counterparts but no matter.

After 100 years of waiting for the fall of a star one could not be picky about the details.

"Young. And with a heart full of darkness and hate I fear." Her voice broke the stillnes of their souls poised to the trajectory of the heavenly body ripping through the navy sheet and clouds.

"At least we will not need to feel guilt for slaying him to take his marrow then." Her sister's smile graced her face like a blood stain in the dimness and Hinata breathed in hard.

Twirling the glaive expertly above her head to cut the air and disperse the glowing dragonmoths intent on sucking their blood she sighed, tucking the heavy weapon under her arm, close to her side and next to her heart.

"Ready to hunt?" Hanabi stood, gathering with slow careful breaths the energy and primal raw pulse of magic from the soil below through the soles of her feet.

Behind her the fallen star exploded into being in sparks of crimson and indigo as it crashed into the ground. The world was set to trembling, and the long lemon grass swayed making the smell of earth and citrus and heat rise around them.

Swallowing hard Hinata nodded, poised to release the coil of tension in her body. Still smiling, her sister unsheathed the elbow blades at either hip, the metal settling to her forearms with a comfortable anticipatory clink.

"For our glory." Hanabi prayed.

"And those of the Hawk Eyed Blood." Hinata countered.

With a breath they shot into the darkness of the swaying trees where the smoldering angel had fallen, their bodies cutting through the grass, raptors aimed to slaughter.

* * *

He came from the heavens. He came from the darkness, where the stars fight for dominance, in a world where light is wielded to killing blows, where stardust is shed like blood. The fire and inferno of being soilborn was not something that agonized so much he could not bear it, but his heart already fragile with the hatred inside it shuddered and groaned.

The ashes and the dust, the fire and charred woodland hissed and spit, the water that hid within the fibers of the trees evaporating split the trunks as it boiled from the explosion of heat of his landing.

Breathless he stirred, gathering his wings along himself, gazing with a face so pale the soil smeared along his cheek looked like a berry stain.

"Obsidian." His whisper was strangled and with shaking fingers he touched one long razor sharp feather as the wings moved and fretted behind him, adjusting to the air, to the weight of the soilpull, to the touch of the breeze.

Bare chested he studied his body for wounds and finding nothing of interest listened intently, hearing with ears too keen for the world he now resided in the rapid fire steps of something approaching purposefully and therefore cunningly.

They exploded from the foliage in a hiss of power and breath, their bodies elegant and daring, their lungs dragging ragged tattered breaths even as their weapons hissed through the oxygen.

He braced himself as the first threat alighted on him, blades flashing in the night.

She was a small bomb of energy and magic, her blades a sparkling fuse lit and shortening. He screamed, a sound like the tearing of bone, the boiling of blood. Shifting hard to the right he let the two spinning blades on the girl's hands slam into the glass he had created with his impact into the sandy soil and it splintered and split, exploding around them in painful shards that made her shriek in pain.

With a grunt of pain himself the fallen angel flashed his wings, batting away the bitterly sharp glass. Gasping the thin oxygen he spun at the sound of the glaive in the other attackers hands cutting through the air with the whipping speed of a hummingbeasts wings.

The grunt coming out of the girl's voice as the glaive cut through the air was strained. She snapped to every spot he tried to occupy, always a second too late. His energy ebbed, his limbs were heavy and worn. He needed sustenance and from the sound of her heart hammering in her chest there was the chance that his attackers too were exhausted.

He had to end it quickly, before they realized he was not at full strength.

Batting hard at the flashing fiend with the glaive with his wing he hissed at the bite of her weapon's edge and grunting hard grabbed at the first and smaller of the girls now sitting on the ground. She gasped, blood rushing from a wound on her shoulder and side from the explosion of glass.

With a cry the young one twisted hard, and blood spluttered from her shoulder over his hands, coating his fingers in the red hue. So different, so foreign.

He stared at the sticky warmth of her life, aware of the frozen glaive wielder standing before him only vaguely.

"Release my sister." Her voice however drew his gaze, pulling his attention from the shimmering redness on his fingers, staring with eyes black and empty as the deepest caves at the frightened girl before him.

"You were not trained well enough to capture one of my kind." He responded amiably, and he watched with curiosity as her pearl colored eyes flinched hard, watching him suck the blood off his fingers, savoring the new flavor of metal, earth and spice.

In his arms the wounded blade wielder grunted hard, repulsion and animosity coming out on her breath. Also fear. It left a tang in the air stronger than the flowery living scent that wafted from her dark hair.

His words were true, for he was not a liar and even more importantly, his kind were repulsed by lies. As he cleaned the redness from another long digit he eyed the older sister in front of him some more, watching as her pale gaze shifted over the situation, calculating.

Behind her the sky was a splash of violent purples and dark blues, stars had once been numerous and distant, a scattering of sparkles across the heavens.

Now there were only handfuls, so close they were holes punching through the smoothness of the heavens. Behind it all the orb of their moon glowed bright, it's shattered left corner sending splintered bits of rock along the heaven's to reflect the sun. It was a piece of glass perpetually breaking to a million pieces.

He thought for a moment, how the eyes of these two hunters resembled that moon.

It was then that he realized he had made a mistake.

Eyes flashing to the face before him, he gripped the wounded body of the girl against him harder, just in time to duck as the glaive sailed with precision and force towards his head. It sliced the air, tugging on a bit of his cheek as it passed by his snatched features, ripping open a red sneer along the high cheek bone on his handsome face even as he snatched himself from it's murderous intent.

It took his breath away to see her coming after the glaive with speed he had not anticipated from a creature of the Veil. Her face was a mask of smooth lines and there was something ferocious about the lack of expression in it as she launched herself at him fists raised, the dagger flashing in her grip.

Growling deep within the confines of his being he shoved forward, throwing the girl in his arms up not as a shield but a projectile.

Even diminished as he was, she was easily flying through the air and as her elder sibling watched, eyes widening a fraction, the knife that glinted so sharply was suddenly dropped.

They crashed in a pile of arms and legs to the glass covered ground, and he was on them in seconds.

Brutally he kicked hard, sending the already wounded one onto her back. The sound of cracking ribs and choked wet gasps that tinged her lips crimsonberry red echoed in the stillness over the tinkling of the shattered glass crunching beneath his feet.

"No." The elder was up again, scrambling over to them, agile despite the wince of pain on her face. "No, don't touch my-"

"Sister, yes I heard." He grunted, and the wings which were spreading wider encompassing all of the sky in the ebony black of his darkness batted her away with such ease as to call forth a curse from the broken one now beneath his bare foot.

Even gasping for breath, even curled against the pressure of his heel on her broken rib, even bleached white as the pearly eyes in her face the spirited little thing clenched her teeth.

"Be done with it, firebound. Release me from this shell." Her spit was splattered pink and red across her chin and he contemplated the determination on her face.

"Firebound." He mused at the insult, watching a feather sharp as a razor, black as the starless sky tumble through the air to land beside them. "I suppose I am."

Hinata's shriek was a tear in the fabric of the anticipatory calm. " _No_!" The buzzing of the insects and the whistle of the breeze through the reedy plants of the underbrush paused to breathe as Hinata scrambled to her feet. "

Her chest heaved, and the blow from his wings had left slices across her hands and clothing, across one cheek, neck and exposed a round glowing patch of her shoulder through a rip in her tunic.

His dark eyes peered through the locks of ink black hair, mouth calm and expressionless, even as he glinted with the malicious intent of a kill.

"Please... _please_ don't kill her. _Please_." Tears.

He watched as the diamond liquid rolled from the corners of her eyes and over the curves of her cheeks, leaving trails of precious magic along her skin.

Tears.

These creatures produced them?

"Starwater." He snapped in surprise, watching the tendrils of liquid condense to a droplet at the soft curve of her chin, threatening to fall.

Two, three of those tears would reduce the pain of his landing, more would dull his gnawing hunger, even more would have him closer to true fighting form.

A continual supply... his gaze flickered to his blackened wings...he might gain back the purity of his feathers, maybe...

Maybe even make it back home.

"Do all you dirt-crawlers produce starwater?"

From below, wincing at the knifing pain of his heel at her shattered bones the younger one hissed out a sharp. "Yes."

The elder however shook her head, jaw pinched tightly closed. "Don't listen to her." Her voice shook like her body did and as he watched he marveled at the control it was taking for her to stay standing. He could see from the blood seeping along the length of soft gray leggings that the sharpness of his feathers had seared a deep wound along her thigh. "Only those of us with weak hearts can produce them." She blinked her pale eyes rapidly, and the glitter of those tears shimmered in the light. "It is compensation. To balance our...shortcomings."

Shortcomings.

Slowly he returned to the broken thing at his feet, her wheezing breath hinting a punctured lung. "She will die anyway."

"No!" And the elder took another step forward, freezing at the murderous flash of his eyes. Hands raised in pleading she shuddered and trembling visibly whispered, "We know your blood can heal us as our tears can heal you. Please." She swallowed and her hand traveled to the slash on his cheek. "Please."

And she said the words he had been waiting for, hoping for. "I offer my life in your eternal service in exchange for my sister."

Even down on the ground, even pressed like a mantisbug to the grass, soil and glass the younger flinched and fretted, her mouth filled with blood and her eyes flashed. "No!" The strangled cry escaped her as more of the scarlet liquid spilled over her lips. "No!"

He would have been a fool to not take the offering. It would have been idiocy to not see what bountiful blessings would come witht he aquired slave.

A slave who could produce starwater.

Before the slash on his cheek finished closing he slid a pale hand along the bone, gathering the remnant streams of molten silver that spilled from the gaping wound knitting closed even as he crouched.

In the shadows he was a giant carrion bird, the wings multiplying his size and magnitude and imprinting the image of his pale bare chest, his luminous glowing skin, and the flash of long cold charcoal of his eyes within his white features to her memory forever.

What had her clan been thinking, sending them out to hunt a fallen star?

How could they have thought that they would bring it down?

Bring _him_ down?

Hanabi struggled in vain, trying to clamp her lips shut even as he gripped her cheeks and squeezed her mouth open smearing the silver liquid into her protesting maw.

Clamping his palm firmly over the now coated teeth of the girl he watched as she tried to wrench herself free without disturbing the damaged ribs, without suffocating in the blood coming from her lungs. Soon the molten silver would wind through her throat, begin to leech into her stomach lining, pulsing through her body in slow waves, and the bone would reknit, the blood would be coughed from her lungs.

Maybe it would take two hours, or four or eight. One thing he did know.

It was not going to be pleasant.

"Do not waste the starwater." He murmured, turning to the frozen withering thing that was the elder sister. Startled she turned her pale gaze from the snarling weakening form that was her sibling to him.

Rivers... she had caused rivers to appear on her cheeks, meandering slowly over the smooth paleness of her skin. Insure of what he meant she watched as her sister finally swallowed right before passing out allowing him to let go of her and move lithe as a stalking beast towards her.

The wings folded heavy behind him, barring her little sister from view, enclosing her in the void of his darkness.

Her trembling resumed, but she kept her pale eyes raised to his, her features straining for calm.

His grip on her chin made it difficult to keep the panic from flashing in her eyes, but there was a valiant attempt at holding her hands stiffly at her sides. Carefully, with the same curiosity of before fluttering over his face he bent down, for she was much shorter than him and pressed his tongue warm and moist to the edge of her cheek, sliding it long and slow until he tickled the flutter of her lashes.

The liquid was sweet, it coated his tongue and seeped into his bones with a warmth that made his marrow feel close to boiling. A welcome sensation after having cooled from shining brightly in the heavens always at a constant burn.

Closing his eyes to savor the heat and magic he let out a breath that almost rattled with a moan.

Almost.

Perhaps she figured it was the one time she would be able to ask, right after having delivered on her promise that her tears would bring him sustenance.

"Will my sister live?"

His eyes flickered open and with their proximity he watched her search his face with earnest, unveiled inquiry. Trust. Whatever he said she would trust it

The smirk that graced his lips was slow in coming and had little of the warmth he felt in his bones.

"Yes. But she will suffer much to get there."

On cue, hidden by the black of his feathers Hanabi's voice cracked with agony, and the crumple of cartilage and bones flashed a wince through the elder sister's face. "Oh!" she groaned and moved as though to step around him.

His grip, so gentle just a second before tightened, and dug into her chin as though to bruise. "No." He shook his head. "We had a bargain."

Eyes wide with sudden panic her hands rose, for a moment there was the flutter of digits aching to form magical seals, the instinct of a warrior with none of the warriors thoughtless intent.

"Please! Please, let me stay with her until-"

He almost laughed then, and his grip on her chin forced them almost nose to nose. "Had I been at my full strength you would have been dead in seconds. As it is, this annoyance has proved to be helpful to me and for that I will let my blood put her back together."

Another creaking sound and then the retching of Hanabi drowning in blood began behind them. An agony with the still broken rib shifting to wrestle straight across her torso.

"But you and I, we have places to be. And anyway," He watched with unabashed hunger as the tears welled in her gaze, glistening on her lashes. "I heard emotional pain makes tears flow as badly as physical." He cocked his head. "Lucky for you I won't have to slice the tears out of you."

There was no chance for a good bye.

There was nothing.

Just the grip of his arm around her waist, the sudden falling away of the soil below, her frantic grip on his shoulders, arms, anything as they rose into the air and her sister's prone form growing smaller over his shoulder.

Then Hanabi was nothing but a smear of gray and gold against the darkness of the clearing ground, and a whisper on her older sister's lips.

Hinata wept, trying not to recoil at the feel of the fallen angel's lips along her mourning face, drinking up the sadness like it was the best honeywine.

It was surely the overwhelming sense of loss that allowed her voice to shift, to whisper and ask even though now she was just a thing owned and kept instead of a person free. "... _why_ did you come?" And the regret was heavy on her tongue as she whimpered. " _Why_ did you come here?"

His mouth leeched the tears that poured from her face for another moment before offering a short furtive answer, uninterested in making eye contact with her as they sailed above the sky in a flurry of fluttering deadly feathers.

"I came to destroy someone." His explanation was curt at least, understandable. "My body would not have been of use to you." He smirked as he continued to feast upon the tears. "Hatred lurks inside me. Had you dried and ground my bones to spread across the fields, the soil would not have produced the crops you yearn for." He shook his head. "Poison would have grown instead."

She did not answer or ask anymore, and after a time of being cold found herself resting limply in his grip, listening to her heart beat in rhythm with his wings.

There was no satisfaction in knowing she had in the end been right. Her soft spoken supplications with the elders of her clan had gone unheeded.

Sometimes it seemed to her that having a weak heart had more than just the tears as compensation. Sometimes, it showed her the truth.

A hate filled thing could not produce abundance.

Now she had paid the price for her clan's arrogance.

When her tears finally stopped but his flying did not she felt the coolness of the night wind drying the last touch of his tongue on her face until her sadness had been consumed completely and with the fuel he continued on.

Soon, too tired from being frightened and saddened she fell asleep in his arms.

And the hateful thing kept flying.

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


	2. Introduction

_**Well shit**_

 _ **Here we go again.**_

 _ **I dunno, we'll see how long this one decides to hang around. I have never written sci fi- let me tell you. I know for a fact that Sasu and Hina are a different pair than all my other fics in this round.**_

 _ **To those of you who reviewed- like... guys, you're so sweet and thank you so much. I honestly was bracing myself for an onslaught of "This isn't very good." so to see interest was great- and to see that what i wrote actually was understood despite my lack of world building abilities is even better.**_

 _ **Like, YAY! I didn't completely make a mess. So thank you.**_

 _ **Still, I dunno. I have no clue what I'm doing.**_  
 _ **Mercy, I beg.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky.**_

* * *

 _Introductions_

The world beyond the copse of the trees lining the borders of their valley had always been a thing too dangerous to venture to without very adequate reasons.

Within their valley, confined and safe in the arms of the leaf covered mountains was water, soil, wind and the hot springs that boiled and heated their stones for warmth. More than enough to sustain the heartbeats of all those who lived within the protection of the mountain range.

Or it had been for many years at least.

In that time of peace some arts had been lost where others had been perfected. Painting, flute playing, carving. The training of architects who could make wondrous curving buildings that sang when the wind blew past them. Dance and singing flourished. Where other noble arts, those of hunting, skinning, killing and dying were mostly left at the wayside while peace and prosperity reigned.

Only one clan clung to some of the warrior ways, only one blood line held on to the knowledge that the peace would one day be broken. Like a wildfire to raze the soil to blackness and bring back the nutrients calamity came in fits and starts. When it happened they would be ready.

That was the mantra of those of the Hawk Eyed Blood. When the calamity did come in the form of the disappearing stars and the shattering of the moon they were not surprised. Except, they had miscalculated more badly than any of their ancestors would have believed. The bodies of the stars that fell from heaven may have decayed and brought on abundance from their graves, but there was a price too heavy to pay. With the last of the stars to fall over a hundred years ago the soil had become steadily more impotent. It yielded less and less with more and more strain.

Eventually the hope was pinned on another falling star, and the people of the Veil so long not interested in the happenings of the heavens became transfixed by the last remaining flickers in the navy and purple sky.

His fall could be seen weeks before he landed on the Veil Lands. The elders debated and argued about what to do about it. But it had all been for naught. A hundred years of expectation was hard to argue with. There was only one thing to do. They had to try to slay the star, if it fell living. Use it's bones, heal their fields, heal their sick with it's blood.

She had been right. His quiet, blushing cousin. The heiress of the Hawk Eyed clan always so buried in her books and scrolls had known something no one else had. The quest had all gone so terribly wrong.

"Veil have mercy, restrain Hanabi's soul within it's shell, keep her with me."

Neji's face was a mess of sweat and blood not belonging to him. With his heart in his throat and his limbs shaking he struggled down the hillside, cradling the small body of his youngest cousin to his chest. A cloak had been tied loosely over his shoulder, making a carrier of sorts that supported much of her weight as he struggled down the sharp incline of the mountain.

On either side of him two shadows ran, featureless and silent, breaths non existent, their vigilance on him and the dangerous terrain constant.

"Nightfall comes." On his right the blackness of the shadow took the shape of a woman, her hair a tangle in two knots on her head. "We will not be able to stay with you by moonlight. Let me come to you."

"No, Tenten." Neji grunted softly, scrambling over a boulder protruding from the slip and slide that was the rocky path the shadows had picked as his road. "I can't think of protecting you both in the black. Please don't."

"Protect me?" The shadows edges fuzzed and fizzled with irritation, and on the other side of him the twin blackness of the other shadow moved his head back as though surprised at Neji's words.

"I don't know why I bothered to ask." She snapped, beginning to spice the air with electricity. It was not subtle. The shadow was suddenly humming a high pitched noise that sent a bolt of power through the air and with the tingle of lightening on the breeze a woman climbed out of the blackness, stepping through her shadow until it fell, once more a normal thing against the ground behind her.

Her brown eyes matched the color of her tangled knotted hair on her head, and with her hands on her hips the sleeves of her tunic flowed in curtains along her thighs. Jaw tight she watched as Neji shifted Hanabi in his arms and scowled.

"I just told you not to come. It's dangerous out here-"

"I'm coming too." The other shadow began, and the first smack of shocks began to fizzle through the air.

"No!" Tenten and Neji shouted together. "We need someone to be in contact with the village." Tenten continued when Neji did not. "In the morning..." she paused, eyeing the limp bloody thing in Neji's arms with a tightening of her jaw. "If we're still alive, you will be able to let the elders know, Lee. You're more use through the blackness."

The young man's shadow seemed to think this through for a moment. The black of his being was not completely solid and through it Neji watched the dim suns begin to set due north.

"As you say." Lee agreed. "At the first touch of dawn's light, I will be with you."

"Dawn then." Tenten smiled, although her eyes did not meet the expression. Pressing a hand over the pounding heart hiding within her tunic she breathed slowly to keep calm. "You are missing from me, Lee."

If the shadow smiled she did not see it without any features on it's head shaped form but his hand lifted to his own heart. "And you from me, Tenten." and in a blink it had disappeared.

Now leaning on the rock he had been aiming to climb over Neji tried to steady his breathing. The air was so thin up on the mountain range that he felt perpetually dizzy, and carrying the weight of his cousin although she was tiny was soaking his tunic through with sweat.

In the carrier Hanabi's head lolled carelessly, stretching her long pale throat to the remnant touch of orange from the first setting sun.

Tenten eyed the sky, tracing the line of the second sun and calculating.

"Maybe we have an hour before Luminatus sleeps." She murmured, her earrings twinkled as she moved her head to follow the trajectory of the star. "Solatta is nearly gone." She watched then as the first and younger of the suns sank further between the mountains on the other side of their valley, only a sliver of shining white against the darkness of the range and then it was gone.

Neji was not watching the suns. His focus was on Tenten, jaw tight. "I told your brother I would keep you safe."

Ignoring him the girl moved forward, taking Hanabi's smooth cheek in her palm to study her expression. From having been with Neji in her shadow form when he arrived at the crash site of the angel she knew Hanabi was in no regular sleep. Covered in blood from face to knees the girl had been writhing in agony and unaware of the world beyond her closed eyes. This quietness that had overcome her was not natural.

Even still, it was hard to remember that when she looked so calm and young in his arms. If you ignored her blood soaked tunic she could have been having a well deserved nap.

"I see no wounds, despite the blood." She murmured, drifting her hands over Hanabi's little body, feeling for coagulating claret or awkwardly placed bone fragments beneath her fingers.

"Tenten." His voice was exhausted and it was that admittance that finally drew her brown eyes up. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his handsome face, his brows pulled tightly together as he stared at her, waiting.

"Lee knows I intend to serve my life at your side." Tenten shrugged. "What use am I if you will not allow me to perform my calling."

"Lee is my friend. I promised him I would let nothing harm you. What friend am I to break such a vow?" His tone was less than amiable, it had the edge of authority and although she almost always resented its use it was especially irritating aimed at her.

"It was a foolish vow." She snapped her head around, making her earrings swing and shimmer in the dying light as she studied their surroundings. They had been still too long, but judging from his hurried breaths he had needed the break. They needed to find a tree to make camp in and with the ravine full of rocks and hard clay there would be none big enough for some distance. They needed to hurry.

Neji's vexed growl was low but resigned and knowing what she was thinking was easy as her eyes trailed the nearby trunks.

"I think there may be some adequate forest further down. Would you like me to carry her?" Tenten continued, spotting what looked like a silkweed through the deep green and navy blues of the foliage that stretched out beneath them at the bottom of the rocky ravine.

The silkweed only liked to climb the tallest of the trees, with the sturdiest of trunks. Once entangled in it's bark it rose as high as it could for it needed much of the sun's touch to grow and thrive. It's smooth lime green tendrils were soft enough when fresh to chew and eat raw, bursting with citrus and jaw breaking sweetness from so much sunlight. Once well established it was shaped as a thick ribbon, smooth as silk spiraling around it's host tree. In a silkweed infested tree they would find shelter from the creatures that lurked in the night on the forest floor and food from it's softer tendrils without needing magic. If they were lucky it would have collected the cloudwater in the pockets of it's twisted length.

In that tree was food, rest, water.

Survival.

They had to get to that tree.

"I don't want you to carry her. One of us needs to be able to handle a weapon if it comes to it." Neji's sigh was more than just tired, and Tenten's decision to arrive despite his abhorrence was vindicated.

"Certainly. Let's go."

Together they struggled down the rest of the rocky incline, unconsciously taking turns to glance at the still and unresponsive bundle in Neji's arms.

They did not speak it out loud although it was singing within their heads in unison. It had been four days. If Hanabi did not wake up soon...

Instead of dwelling Tenten sighed in relief as they hit the smooth flatness of the woodland, showered in the gold light of dusk the silkweed glowed in the distance, having nearly turned the trunk of it's host tree green.

"There." She pointed and watched as the pale eyes of her companion stared through the trees. In seconds he was allowing himself a relieved sigh.

At least for this night, they might survive.

* * *

When she woke there was a fire, and she nearly screamed out loud.

The terror clawed at her throat to escape but even it quailed when her eyes landed on the creature across from her sharing in the dangerous heat and light of the burning wood. She shuddered violently as she watched the flames dance, spitting sparkles of violet and blue as bits of the wood released their juices in the burn.

His wings were gone, and he seemed so much smaller that she hardly knew what to make of him. Shoulders hunched he sat with his back to the cave wall and stared at the dancing flames with a calm that seemed irrational.

Inching back several feet Hinata stopped only when the other wall of the cave mouth hit her shoulder blades and she nearly melted against it's cool wet points, soothing in comparison to the chaotic burn before her.

She had only ever seen one other fire in her life, and it had not endeared her to it's chaotic frenzy. Of all her nightmares, the ones that rankled her to sweating and sobs were always brightly lit with flames.

"What are you doing?" His eyes did not lift from the heated thing that licked and spat and shimmied in the darkness between them. His voice was bored, but also on the brink of annoyed and thinking it best to keep him from irritation Hinata swallowed the dryness in her mouth as best she could before replying.

"...I... I'm sorry... I... I'm frightened of the flames."

His gaze did lift then, the blackness of those eyes piercing past the shaky reality of the heatwave emitting from the orange thing eating violently the wood.

"It's true then." He mused, not really replying to her but thinking to himself. He had heard of some dirt-crawlers fearing the warmth of flames. Although, he had been unsure about believing it. Surely nothing sentient was so backwards. Softly he whispered, "What stupidity."

Sitting stiffly now with her knees to her chest she breathed out slow, as slow as she could. The world out beyond the tangle of her limbs was too warm and yet within her a flash of something sharp and superheated as the fire threatened. It took her a moment to realize what it was, to take it in her mind and delicately turn it one way and then the other to study.

After another long pause it finally dawned on her.

She was angry.

"Fire ravages." She said it softly as he too spoke, straining against the emotion bubbling in her chest. He did not need to know that she had watched it flare high in the sky, had been too small to understand it, had basked in it's heat and watched as it caught on things she loved... things... _people_ she missed.

His smirk, unshaken by the tremble of dislike in her voice was just as ravaging as the flames, beautiful as the snarling grin of a many toothed predator. "Yes." He agreed. "It does."

The shiver that traipsed down her back made her close her eyes against his expression.

"Come here." His command left no room for discussion and with her back pressed to the cave wall she forced herself to look at him across the blaze. The fire reflected on the blackness of his eyes, making him look like something hellish. Her sister, small and vicious like a strike of lightning had called him Firebound to his face, and in that moment she wondered if it had been an insult to a thing such as him. Somehow she doubted it.

"...I...I cannot get near it." She whispered, despite the urge in her limbs to comply. Those dark eyes blinked slowly across the sweltering waves of heat coming from the flames.

"I will not ask again."

The threat was silky smooth and with her heart thumping in her throat she pictured again her sister, broken and spitting blood, the crimson stain across her chin dripping in ribbons from her face.

If she was ever going to get back home to Hanabi she needed to stay alive. If she was ever going to look her father in the face again, she needed to comply.

There was a freezing knot cooling her throat to pain but her limbs moved, almost of their own volition, trembling and shaky from her wounds and terror. The higher she stood the more the smoke stung, and cinders snapped and crackled from the roaring thing between them, like it was enticed by her movements.

The fallen star leaned back, laying his dark head against the sharp stone of the cave, watching her through hooded eyes as she slowly wandered around the fire, her back to the darkness of the cave mouth where the woodland hissed and rustled with the wind.

Keeping her eyes always on the flames, shaking hard every time the fire cracked or hissed she made it across to where the angel lay, although without his wings she wondered if calling him an angel was accurate.

"Pathetic." His voice slid beneath the sound of the flames and her eyes flickered to him, filled to the brim with the panic and wariness.

Memories were tickling at the back of her brain, threatening to consume her like the fire consumed the logs within it's grasp. Blinking hard Hinata clenched her jaw, straining against the images.

He was fast.

Faster than any of her clan, who were renown for their speed, for their agility and grace. In a moment he was on his feet, making her start and nearly jump back into battle stance. However, his grip was on her face and waist, forcing her in a half dip that bent the small of her back and curved her to him.

It was a vulnerable position, one so against everything she had ever been taught that her heart hammered hard and any words she knew died within her mind. Protestation was only a gasped stuttering sound in her mouth, hands on his shoulders that half pushed before he had her wrist pinned behind her back.

"Enough." There was no patience, no kindness in his tone and when his lips met her cheek she froze.

Once on a gleaning walk through the forest with her back heavy laden with plants to bring home for the Acolyte banquet she had wandered upon a many-tailed fox. They were rare in their forests, beings made half of fire half flesh, the dirtied blood of a hell cretin and a woodland fox.

His tails had waved hard at the sight of her, flickering like the fire did now although she knew because it was in the lullabies she was sung by her Ayah that despite how hot the fox looked he did not burn.

He did however eat flesh.

In his mouth a long eared rabbit heaved for breath. White as the moon fragments in the sky it gasped and stuttered, and her eyes already so sharp despite her young age could see the pulsing of his heart beat, too fast for life, to hurried towards death.

The fox lowered the creature from it's mouth to the mossy ground between it's charcoal black paws and bared it's canines at her in the flickering light of it's glowing tails. Hinata had remained perfectly still, looking back with pain in her heart. The little rabbit lay still heaving on the ground, it's bright azure blue eye glistening as it gasped.

"...I...I mean you no harm." She had whispered, taking a step back to concede the fox this battle. It was young, but then so was she. Yet she was no fool. Training told her when to retreat as much as when to obliterate. This was not a battle she wanted nor needed to fight.

The fox let himself grumble low in his throat, and satisfied with her slow hesitant steps back proceeded to take the rabbit into it's mouth once more.

It was the moment that his maw snapped to the creature's snowy coat that the rabbit froze, his eye dimming, his breaths snapping to a stop as abruptly as the snap of a twig.

Either it's heart had exploded in it's chest from fear, or the terror froze it's bones.

In the angel's grip Hinata stared at the dark cave ceiling, with his mouth on her skin thinking of the fox and it's canines sharp against the snowy coat of the rabbit. She had been trained for so long to be one of the foxes, the wild dogs, the flesh eating birds of the trees, and yet she had always known.

With the heart in her chest, and the tears in her eyes. She was no fox.

She was a rabbit.

Snowy white, until gored scarlet.

The trembling was overtaking her despite her best intentions to be still in his grip. With one hand at the nape of her neck loosely tangled in her black hair and the other gripping her wrist hard she felt the smirk of his mouth against her chin before his tongue lapped at the tear condensing there.

"You taste of fear."

Slowly Hinata closed her eyes, straining not to crack her teeth with how hard she clenched her jaw.

"And shame." This was said with mild amusement. Delicately the tongue slid up her cheek, tickling her lashes before departing.

"You _should_ be ashamed. It was a foolish thing to do, coming after a fallen star." He muttered, pulling away. As easily as he had taken her, capable of breaking her spine with the brute force of his hands he was done, releasing her to stand shivering despite the heat.

With shaky fingers Hinata rubbed at the wetness on her face, not from her tears but his tongue. It seemed surreal, that she so quiet and modest, so set to celibacy in the service of her people and clan would now be here... wiping the saliva of a male from her cheeks.

"I...I tried to tell them." She breathed out soft and uncertain, wondering if her reply was allowed let alone wanted.

His eyes did not reveal surprise or even interest as he lowered himself back down to the ground, although they did not deviate from her face.

"Them?" He grunted, turning back to the fire finally. "Who is important enough that you should go to your death willingly?"

With growing uncertainty Hinata shifted, still wiping at the wetness on her cheek with the sleeve of her ripped and battered tunic. "The elders... my father..." She swallowed. "It is what I was raised to do."

"To kill me." It was not a question.

He turned his eyes back to her then and to his surprise she did not look away. Studying her in the light there was the clarity of grayness to her iris, not just white. He watched, contemplating as her pupil dilated and narrowed sharply to the dance of the fire.

Pale eyes, fear of fire, weak heart capable of producing tears, and if he judged based on the throw of her weapon at his face she also had excellent aim which meant likely as not...

"Hawk Eyed." He stated the fact. "You're one of the Hawk Eyed blood." He was certain now where before he had only hypothesized.

Lowering her chin a little to her chest she continued to stare back, ignoring the shaking of her limbs.

His smile was worse than a snarl. "Of course you are. Only an idiot of your clan would try to take down my kind." He turned away. "I wonder how many more they will send before they finally realize even their heirs wouldn't faze me."

"They will send no more." Her voice was quiet, her swallow thick. He was unimpressed and unconvinced. "Why so sure?"

"I am their...I was their heiress."

It took effort to keep surprise from flickering over his face, coolly he studied her tight jaw, and the now weakening stance of her legs still wounded from their introductory tussle.

"What a pity."

"...I volunteered." This was an understatement, she tried to ignore the half lie. The truth was she had shown her first sign of disobedience when the decision to hunt the descending star was announced by the elders of her Clan. She would go whether they allowed it or not.

"You will have to keep me caged, sedated, tied up." Her voice had shaken, her stutter ripping her words apart and her eyes had been unable to raise to her father sitting among the elders, who was surely flushed with shame. "But I will not send one of our people out there to hunt the star I am sure will slay them. If I am ever to protect my clan in some way, the blood offered should be mine."

"You volunteered to die." He turned away, tired of the conversation.

Softly, as she lowered herself to the ground with a wince of pain from the cracking of half formed scabs all over her she sighed. "I know."

The thing they both didn't bother voicing although it twisted through their minds at the same time was the stark truth.

She had in fact _not_ died.

* * *

Tenten did not regret her choice to magic herself to Neji's location. She did not regret it despite his irritated scowl or the shiver of fear that spider walked down her back or the fist of cold terror that tightened at her stomach every time the woodland rustled or sighed through the night.

Up in their silkweed infested tree they were silent, with Hanabi fast asleep in a makeshift hammock on a sturdy young branch, dead to the world in all ways but her heart and breath.

Together Tenten and Neji pried open her mouth and using the leaves of the iron tree that housed them collected mint tasting water. It had sat cool and refreshing in the twisted pits made by the silkweed's growth tangling like curtains around the tree's trunk. Once Hanabi had swallowed several mouthfuls they had settled with their backs to the trunk hands holding bunches of the chewy jaw breakingly sweet tendrils of silkweed roots for their supper.

Below in the darkness of the forest things moved and rustled. Glowing insects shifted and buzzed, sometimes humming loud as machines, other times whispering hardly audible over the sound of the wind through the leaves.

By their light the ground below was revealed to their tired eyes in shades of violet, navy blue and neon green.

Nothing stared back from the shadows. If they were lucky, nothing would notice them and try to climb to their nest to make a meal of them.

"You should sleep." Tenten whispered in the darkness after swallowing the third bite of the silkweed tangles. It almost hurt the teeth to eat them plain, but the sugar content would arm her with quick acting energy. It was as pure as energy got, almost a direct translation of the suns' rays and the magic within it to food she could absorb with her mouth.

It was as close to photosynthesis as she would likely ever get.

"I can't." Neji whispered, his eyes flickering through the darkness, searching. "You won't be able to see if something is hunting us from a mile away. I will though."

Tenten let out a breath through the nose that said more about her annoyance than any sentence she could have put together. "You've been going non stop for almost a full rotation of the suns. You won't be able to walk straight in the morrow let alone see anything if you don't sleep. Don't be foolish."

Neji's gaze continued to shift through the shadows, at half mast despite his best intentions. Beside him he could feel the pressure of Tenten's hip against his own, more comforting than his bed, more familiar than his pillow.

"If something happens..." he hesitated, picturing Lee's face should something occur to his precious sister. Already he was returning with only one of the Clan's heiresses. He could not arrive back to their village without Tenten.

"I'll tell you what," Tenten began then, tugging on his arm. For a moment he wasn't sure what she was doing, until she was wrapping her arm around his shoulder, and pressing him to her lap.

Drowsy half formed thoughts filtered through his mind. Thoughts about proper decorum, and about how his body should never be anywhere near a young lady's lap.

But he was so very tired. His bones heavy as the rocks he had climbed over all day yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

It didn't take much convincing for him to find himself curled on the giant branch, his head in her lap, eyes already more than half closed. "If something is aiming to kill me, how about we both die and neither of us have to go back home to inform anyone of our failure." Tenten's voice sounded confident and assured, like her plan was logical, obvious, fool proof.

"That is so very _not_ soothing." Neji grumbled, although he was still inching closer to slumber, his tight aching shoulders loosening.

"I can protect you too, you know." Tenten's fingers were in his hair, slow and steady they slid through the brown tresses, untangling knots as she found them. Usually Neji's hair, long and to his waist was a single sheet of brown, shining and neatly plaited down his back out of the way. To find knots was surprising, but then he had been travelling for days now.

"I never said you couldn't." His voice was worse than when he had indulged on nectar spirits at the last Acolyte Festival, more groggy and raw. That day he had looked at her long and hard, his hand always so steady and sure had shaken as it tucked a lock of her unruly copper brown locks behind her ear.

Under the swirling glow of the dragonmoths she had stared back, wondering how much of her his beautiful hawk eyes could see that others could not.

He had said nothing but her name, just the two soft syllables whispered over drunken vocal chords, but there had been a lot in that whisper.

That night she had told Lee she intended to offer her life to the Hawk Eyed Clan. It was for all intents and purposes willing slavery.

Her kind brother had smiled sadly, taking her chin in his hand to study her face. "Of course you are."

Surprising her in the quiet of the dark woods, with his breath so even she was sure he was asleep Tenten blinked to hear Neji's voice again.

"I _know_ you can protect me...yourself...everyone." He whispered. "I just...wish you did not have to."

The words were heavy on her lips as she slid her fingers over his scalp, listening not only to the shifting woodland but the pounding of her heart.

She never said it, but when she was sure he was asleep she leaned to kiss his temple, hoping somehow that the words would pass through her skin into his.

 _I_ want _to protect you. I want to._

* * *

The hunger had gone from a soft pulsing pain to a hollowness that threatened to grow into a blackhole, capable of eating her up with it's fervor. Breathless she followed after the angel, her hand pressing hard to her stomach where the throb of her heart echoed a second after it beat in her chest.

Around them the forest whispered and hissed, and her ears so long trained to compensate should her eyesight ever be gauged in battle heard every rustle, every shift, every crack of a branch beneath their feet.

It made her jump how he blazed through the woods like a scorching fire. He cared nothing for stealth, breaking branches of bushes with his shoulders, crackling the dry underbrush beneath his boots, his steps heavy and relaxed.

By contrast she skittered as much as she could through the woodland as a ghost. Without meaning to she began to make space between herself and the angel's broad back, aching that he was calling so much attention to himself.

To her.

Travelling through the woods during the day light was only a fraction safer than at night when the real toothy predators liked to stalk. It did not mean there wasn't anything out there in between the foliage eyeing them with interest.

In a world years into dying everything was ruthless, careful and cunning. Being invisible had been the only true defense against the dangers outside of her valley. And now with him...

"Stop dawdling." His shout made her jump and she breathed unsteadily through her nose, pressing a handful of her tunic hard into her belly button. Dizzy, and with sweat trailing down her face she looked at him, opening her mouth although no words came forth.

Several feet away from her he frowned, dark eyes and hair a match to the pants he wore. The material was unlike anything she had ever seen with none of the coarseness of hemp and none of the softness of insect spun silk. It was black as his hair and eyes, and on his thigh a single belt wrapped tightly, three little bottles sat snug within their leather bindings, besides that, and his boots he wore nothing else.

In a different situation she would have been embarrassed but exhaustion and hunger and fear had a way of driving her blushes to the back of her mind.

"I... I am..."she began uncertainly. "I'm starving."

A frown flickered on his face and he stopped, listening suddenly. Hinata too closed her eyes, focusing on a sound coming ever closer, quiet but not exactly stealthy.

Only one thing moved so carefully and rapidly. Something that was no longer counting on stealth to offer the element of surprise. Whatever it was must be close enough that if they heard it they still wouldn't have long to prepare.

Her eyes snapped open just in time to turn towards the thick bushes and meter wide leafy umbrellas of the mud wall to her right, spreading her stance and lowering her point of gravity.

Standing several feet away he watched, body loose- uncaring.

The pack exploded from behind the foliage in a tidal wave of black, brown, and blue gray fur. Besides the colors so in sync with the terrain there were the teeth, incisors so large the animals couldn't close their mouths and ears so wide they twisted and turned to follow sound.

With no eyes to speak of, the carnivorous hound-pigs were completely reliant on sound and smell, their flat noses snorting even as they trampled the bushes and coming from a five feet high ledge on her right Hinata had a moment to let out a scream tinged heavily disgust before they were on her.

The crush of the bodies was instant, there was pain as their meaty heated breath heaved onto her face and their soft bellied muscles strained to grab a mouthful of her limbs.

Thrashing to get her hands into the unlocking seals of magic she gasped and finally interlocking her third finger on her right hand with her thumb on her left she shrieked, "Environ!"

It took the wind out of her to do it with no food, little sleep and inadequate water in her body. The soil beneath her was too far from her skin to lend her the earth's power. Drawing from stores she did not have the magic sphere snapped to life around her, see through as glass when in her stronger moments it had always been closer to stone or in one particularly good day metal and precious jewels.

The hound-pigs smashed against the shield in frustration that their prey, only mildly mauled, was now impossible to access. Their mouths gnawed at the see through magic, leaving streaks of their putrid saliva on it's curves.

Hinata gasped for air, holding her torso with one arm and panting. Warily she looked past the threatening pack attempting to break her shield to the angel who stood now flanked by his razor sharp wings with his hands in his pockets, studying her.

Whenever one of the creatures dared to try it's teeth on him his wings moved elegantly, snapping over the body, sending it flying slashed almost to ribbons from the force and sharpness of his extra limbs.

"A shield." He muttered, eyeing the bubble in which she hid, jumping when one of the animals slammed into the curved surface with a resounding smack of breaking bone. "So this is what the heiress of the most renown warrior clan of Veil can do in an emergency." He sounded unimpressed.

"...I...I haven't... I haven't eaten anything in two days." She panted. A list of things tallied against her the length of her arm. Inadequate sleep, inadequate water, no food, no medicine for her wounds, no chance to even wash the wounds or wrap the more severe ones.

His face remained placid and as he approached another hound-pig came barreling at him when the attack on the bubble didn't prove fruitful. With more hostility than before his wing came slicing through the air, slamming into the four legged scampering creature. The force of the blow sent it reeling into a tree and as it hit the wood the resounding crack of it's spine snapping made Hinata jump to throw her hands over her ears.

"Well there." He jerked his chin at the bloody, now dead creature. "You can eat that."

The horror on her face was not to be ignored. Mouth slack and eyes wide she blinked at him, trying and failing still to regain her breath.

Through the tangles of her dirty black hair she turned away from the dead creature, one of her hands coming to her mouth as though to keep something in. He watched, perplexed as her body almost heaved.

Having finally grown tired of the mess he flicked his wings again sharply, forcing a wave of air hard through the clearing laced with the deadly black of his feathers.

In a moment every creature besides Hinata with her hands on her knees and her head low, lay dead. Black feathers embedded into throats, heads, and ribs.

"You can eat all of them, if you can do it fast enough." He added. "For all I care."

"I..." Hinata winced, feeling how thick her mouth felt with extra saliva she couldn't afford due to dehydration. "I...I don't eat flesh."

The shield flickered, appearing and disappearing in bursts like the batting of insect wings and then vanished, leaving her in the eye of corpse strewn storm.

Disdain, thick as the saliva in her throat dripped from his voice. "What do you eat then, _princess_?" The word was not endearing, said with a hiss and reminiscent of useless women unable to do anything but faint.

Hinata's head snapped up, looking at him through the mess of her indigo black hair. The gray of her iris had sharpened and his smirk was involuntary although he didn't care if she saw.

"I...I can forage, I just... need some time."

"Time is the last thing I have to spare."

With her knuckles white on her knees and her eyes unfocused as she counted the fallen hound-pigs she groaned, closing herself off from the carnage. "Where are we even going?" The exasperation in her voice was not hidden and the thought of striking her crossed his mind, it flickered and then died as quickly as it sparked to life.

No.

He glanced at the feathers then, ebony black and deadly, a reminder of how far he had had to fall to be where he was.

He had no intention of falling further, and striking her would be another rapid descent. Still, rather icily he murmured, "I would watch my tone in the future."

Shaking visibly she pushed herself to standing, her shoulders drooping, her lips turned down in a frown she could not hide. The glitter of her eyes drew his attention like dragonmoths to nectar and in a handful of rapid steps his wings were retreating into his back, making a sound like a chorus of knives being sharpened on stones. As the last of his feathers vanished, he was upon her and she closed her eyes, bracing for the onslaught that was growing more and more familiar with each instance.

Unlike usual his fingers traced the trail of the single tear on her face, sliding up along the curve of her cheek to her lashes. Carefully he licked his finger clean and when she finally opened her eyes he blinked mildly at her, dark eyes searching.

"Anger." He slid his tongue over the roof of his mouth, grating the tear into his taste buds. The spice of her fury was subtle, closer to cinnamon than cayenne but still strong. "I will let you forage, you will need to be able to do more than make a clear shield if you're going to survive to sustain me after our first goal."

She hesitated only a moment before sighing, "What goal?"

"We are going to The Scaled Worm."

Her eyes widened and as he turned and began walking away she scrambled after him, nearly tripping over the discarded bodies of the hound-pigs.

"T-the Scaled Worm? But... but..." Fear twisted in her gut. The ancient being that hid within the tallest mountain was a creature used to terrify children into behaving. Stories of it's unpredictable character were told by the glow of fungi lamps on long nights. It was the oldest and wisest of the Veil creatures. A being so ancient there were none of it's kind left. Sometimes it accepted offerings of precious stones, or rare plants as payment for it wisdom. Lost family had been located by his ability to taste the air with it's forked tongue, smelling out the person on the flecks of dust that traveled through the air.

But sometimes precious stones or impossibly difficult remedies were not payment enough. Sometimes after offering a service the worm would salivate, and through the dark of it's pitch black den only it's teeth glinting through the shadows would be seen.

On those times, the creature would tear it's supplicant apart, limb by limb, eating the person slowly, over the course of many days. Sometimes he stretched their death to unnaturally long periods.

"They-t-they say he's as likely to eat you as help you!" Her panic was not unfounded, but it rushed without restraint through her veins, making her dizzy. "I-it is a fickle and untrustworthy thing. I-is he who you go to slay?"

His grunt was offended. "No." Loudly, but with an elegance she could not deny he climbed over a fallen tree trunk so wide he had to use the thick rock hard mushrooms growing on it's sides as handholds.

Unable to breathe Hinata watched him scale the wall of timber, minty green with moss and spotted with vines and fungi. As he climbed she dug her hands into her hair, her face pinched with fear, wondering at the smoothness of his shoulder blades, rippling with muscles defined and sharp but with no sign of his wings or where they went inside him.

"W..why...why go there? Who are you looking for?" Finally unable to keep the rest of the words from escaping she bit her lip, tasting blood that made her nauseous. "Who _are_ you?"

Now standing on the trunk of the tree he glanced down at her, impatience making him frown.

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Her hands dropped to her sides as she stared.

"...W...what?"

Frowning intently now he motioned to the tree. "Climb."

"You're...you're Sasuke-?" She paused, and the shiver that rankled through her rose gooseflesh over her skin. Gazing up at him her brain fought the information, disagreeing, begging to have not heard correctly.

But there he was, his elegant long fingered hands limp at his sides even as his face tightened in consternation, black eyes flashing with a fire she now could not deny.

"You're looking for the traitor." She clenched her hands so tightly the knuckles whitened and ached. "You're looking for your brother."

The angel flexed his jaw, saying nothing.

Suddenly it all made sense, and her heart plummeted to her stomach. Her mind flooded, with images of the half destroyed moon, the night sky so forlorn and dark with the ever decreasing number of stars where once there had been so many. The war that had raged in the heavens had not interested those of the Veil. Up above the angels and planets fought and lived, but it was then during the war that the stars had begun to fall or sometimes simply go out. At first in few numbers and then, all of a sudden in great sweeping patches of the sky. As suddenly as the lights above began to go out the fields began to produce withered dying crops, sickness began to seep into the bodies of the Veil clans.

The legend said the civil war had torn the galaxy in two. That one side aimed to enter the Veil and eventually Hell below the Veil's soil, believing themselves the rightful rulers of all three worlds: Heaven, Veil and Hell.

The other side fought hard, as guardians of the peace they moved to eradicate the extremists. They had the victory at hand, until one of their most glorious stars switched sides- some stories just said he went mad.

He was known as The Apostate. The eldest son of the Uchiha Clan. Itachi.

His younger surviving brother had one fate to perform, as one of the few stars left.

Kill the Apostate, and then mercy slay her dying world.

Sasuke, the second son of the Uchiha Clan.

"You're... you're The Vindicator." Her voice was more than just weak. Black ate at her vision in hungry vicious bites.

His smile was just as painful, just as raw as the gnawing hunger in her gut.

"Vindicator? No, _princess_. I'm the Executioner at best... and the Murderer at worst."

It was the last thing she heard before the hunger, the wounds, the terror took her into the black, and the words echoed through her mind long even after she collapsed.

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


	3. Dryness and Rot

_**I trashed the last 10 000 words I wrote because world building is actually incredibly difficult. Who knew? No wonder I haven't bothered doing it in so long. Lord in heaven. After I spent all day writing I re-read it and I was like "Plot hole... plot hole- oh look, lack of structure, plot hole, no sequence." literally, infantile attempts.**_

 _ **But my brain seems to have worked out a vast majority of the kinks I found yesterday overnight, so I gave myself two and a half hours to write this next chapter, and so here it is. (it took longer than that. I did not give myself enough time at all)**_

 _ **Also, thank you for your reviews as a couple of the issues I noticed in my writing were thankfully pointed out to me. In a very kind and helpful way too, I might add.**_

 _ **You are all fantastic and I am so thankful.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

The dreams were less of a burden and more of a self mutilation.

There were things that triggered them. Things like looking at the wide expanse of navy blue and indigo that was the night sky. Where once it would have been a smeared with brightly colored light, twisting and turning with the glow of the stars.

Closing his eyes to rest with that image in his mind almost always resulted in the dreams, or nightmares if he was honest. Although, when he spoke about it to anyone he always called them by their true names.

Memories.

 _The clink of his armor had reminded him of the chimes that littered the veranda of home, where the star dust breeze would sweep through the pillars, whispering over the smoothness of the ice and stone floors, jingling the singing bells as it passed, setting off a chorus of joy._

 _This sound, although similar was not joy._

 _This was death._

 _With eyes deeply set within his exhausted face he tried to breath normally, tried to stay focused as he pushed through the frenzy._

 _The battle that was raging around him frothed and roared. Swords were raised, skin was severed, splashes of silver blood erupted through the air. Beneath his feet the white and gray of the moon's outermost surface crunched._

 _Of course Danzo would have chosen to have their last battle where the Veil could see the shining flag of the victor. The shining flag of their Master._

 _The layers of smooth ebony armor on his body shifted as he slid his hand to the blade on his back, tightening his grip on the hilt when Danzo's cat-like movements were finally detected in the strange glow of the moon. Shadows crowded in the most strange places when the only source of light came from below their feet. But his eyes- the darkest of the genetic oculars of stars were unoffended by the glare._

 _Bodies lay in slayed piles around him, and his heart tightened with anger and mourning. Across the sweeping blue of their soil the soul trees of all these stars would be disintegrating. From below the Veil would watch as great patches of the sky were suddenly turned off, empty._

 _A brief confused thought pricked at his consciousness, even as he watched Danzo turn, his blade ripping apart another's neck, slicing silver blood in a wide arc. His eyes, so solemn and serious peered through the gore at Itachi's set jaw, and the blade spinning to life in his hand._

 _Would the people of the Veil see the darkening of the stars and mourn? Would they care?_

 _Would they say the gods were dying?_

 _Or would they curse their lack of response when they offered up a prayer?_

 _Drinking in a breath so deep it ached he flexed his knees, tightened his grip on his sword and begging the moon for her help launched himself at Danzo, the hopeful oppressor of worlds._

 _In the distance, shrieking with panic and fury, he heard Sasuke's young childish voice tear through the atmosphere as his wounded mother dragged him away._

 _"Brother!"_

The jerk of his body from sleep to wakefulness was always so sudden, like being thrown into freezing water from high above. His gasp was muted despite his terror and in a moment he felt the soft hands that always lulled him to silence, the delicate lips that smoothed over his face and whispered of warmth and loving and peace.

"You're safe. Itachi, you're safe."

That was not the problem, but he did not contradict her as she climbed into his lap where he sat shuddering. Her limbs so small and fragile compared to his well scarred shell tangled through his arms and around his neck. With her pressed so hard to his chest he calmed at the feeling of her heart pumping hard past her rib cage echoing inside his own chest.

The darkness of the cave they had picked for their short rest was all encompassing and oppressive but nothing scared Izumi anymore. Sometimes he worried that her lack of fear would be the thing that killed her.

Perhaps if she were afraid like a normal creature she would have feared him also.

Voices whispered in the dark of the cave, even as he felt her breath hot and sweet and familiar on his face before her lips traveled to his, effectively slicing through the memories that haunted him.

"Is everything okay, Captain?" Kisame's grating voice was the only one he could understand in the onslaught of whispers.

Breathless Itachi drew back from Izumi's mouth, feeling her smile along the curve of his jaw bone pressed softly to the pulse there.

"Everything is fine, Kisame." Itachi whispered back, shifting until the wall supported his back, giving his hands freedom to slide up along Izumi's spine to the shoulder blades where he always wondered at the lack of feathers.

"Tch." Kisame's grunt told him that perhaps the steadiness of his voice could have used a little more effort, and an amused snort from Deidara signaled they had ideas about what had made him sound so shaky. Unperturbed, Itachi tightened his hold on Izumi and steadied his breathing to calmness. Living in very close quarters with people made privacy irrelevant. After a hundred years of this, it didn't even enter his mind to be irritated.

The rest of the night they did not speak, instead they listened to the even breaths of their comrades in the darkness, and to each other's heart beats only separated by a couple inches of blood and bone.

In the morning Izumi wept with compassion and love for him as he told her his dream and he drank from her tears, tasting the emotion all the day down his throat as he kissed the liquid from her lips and eyelashes.

Out in the sunrise they breathed in carefully, eyeing the spitting geisers of fumes that choked and potentially killed if the vapor was inhaled too quickly. Beyond the cave the land stretched endless and sick, alternating between swamps that smelled of rot and pus and the fermenting decay of life, and the bone dry freezing deserts that scorched at noon and bit with cold at night.

Food was a long lost concept, it had been months since their last venture into an actually forested area and neither beast nor plant offered sustenance to their large and ever growing party in their current patch of Veil wasteland.

Still feeling the boil of heat and affection from Izumi's tears on his tongue Itachi turned to his band, all whom stared back with eyes as dark as his, although none began that way. The effect of surviving on nothing but his blood had taken years to show. That, among other changes in their bodies now marked them as his just as strongly as it marked him as theirs.

When he sliced his hand open on his sword and fed them from his blood he almost forgot the scream of his brother echoing in the darkness of his nightmares, too distracted for the time being by the hungry mouths who fed on him.

When everyone was satisfied by a mere handful of drops of silver on their tongues, Itachi straightened eyeing the desolate landscape with a frown.

"So, ready to keep hunting?"

He had to give it to Danzo. After a 100 years of searching the Veil for the putrid thing that had once called himself a star, Itachi was impressed by his ability to hide and bide his time.

But it was over, finally he had caught his scent on the wind and found the trail.

Kisame grinned madly at him, and Izumi laced her fingers through his, pushing locks of her hair from her face idly as the breeze lanced with poison whipped through it.

"Whatever you say." Her smile was sweet, like her tears and he breathed in deep despite the rot. He couldn't deny that he felt warmed by their faith and devotion, by the new family he had gained through the century.

Ignoring the hollow place in his heart where Sasuke's name festered he turned and started away.

* * *

It had never occurred to him just how much sleep the people of the Veil required, and as he watched her breathing slowly beside him he allowed himself one deep sigh.

There were a lot of things that his education had not warranted as important for the completion of his Calling. His tutors and instructors had focused on getting what they thought would be the most important truly burned into his memory. Mostly the topics were on how to rip his brother apart and the things he would need to know to stay alive on a land that already looked gored and dying from their vantage point in the sky.

Long ago when he had been nothing but a boy with wings of pure white and silver the Veil world he peered at through the roots of the soul trees had been green, teal blue, sparkling gold. It had ridges and peaks, and clouds that shifted white and pale lavender over it's surface.

It had been one of his favorite past times, finding himself lost in the forest of souls. The trees so brilliant white and perfect that the trunks were smooth as alabaster carved into poles soft and blemish free. The branches were perfectly distributed in a way that seemed almost unnatural, with leaves made of green that appeared more like glass and less like plant life.

These trees were rooted deep in the soil of the sky, first there was the mossy metallic layer, below that the rich black dirt speckled with bits of glimmering bronze, and further down the navy blue and indigo that was the sky.

Through the soil, if you dug deep enough the roots of the soul tree spread wide and glowed brightly on the other side of heaven. Sometimes Sasuke wondered what it looked like to stare up at the trees roots from the Veil down below. Did it look like a tree from so far away?

His brother would laugh when he asked such questions, shaking his head. "The trees roots look like light, Sasuke." He smirked. "Just little points. They can't see this far."

"Well... perhaps they should be blessed with better eyes." Sasuke's voice had been petulant. His curiosity of the world below was not exactly natural. The world of angel stars seemed so monochrome in comparison, and sometimes he felt like he was the only one to notice. Even their cities which grew tall and spiraling, intricately carved from the marble and rock were white as the ground they were built on. The trees themselves were creamy and pale. Beyond that the skies were black but for the rotating suns and the reflective surface of their moon land.

Colors were limited to the leaves of the soul trees, one tree for each angel soul. When an angel finally died, after serving out it's life in the care and protection of all three lands the tree succumbed, breaking down into the bronze powder that flecked the black soil in which the forest grew.

And so, the constant cycle of life and death continued, those that passed feeding the souls of those who were present so that they could feed those of the future.

"They have not asked for better eyes." Itachi's voice had been even more amused. "The people of the Veil are happy."

Looking around now, Sasuke wondered how things could have changed so much in so little time. For them, a hundred years was a breath in a life span that stretched for centuries.

Clearly not so for these creatures. The world of teal blues and greens and sparkling gold had vanished, and great stretches of the land were marred by the dead brown and red of deserts. Entire forests gone, rivers carved like scars across the landscape, dry as bones.

"It really would be a mercy to just get rid of you all." He grumbled, watching as the dirty tired face of the girl beside him breathed in an out in exhaustion. It had really not occurred to him that she would have needed to eat or drink anything for the last two days. Even if he had not had access to her tears he would have been able to continue on his trek for an some time without stopping, even wounded or mildly weakened by his travel from the heavens.

The fire hissed and spit like his thoughts in the shadows of the night, and he eyed the forest beyond the ledge of rock at the cliff side that he had decided would be their resting spot for the evening. There was no escape but into the air from this point should something come at them from the trees.

Looking intently into the shadows he flexed the muscles of his back and contemplated the desire to rip something apart, almost daring the forest to send out a challenge hungry for his blood.

A soft groan derailed the thoughts of slaughter in his mind and in the most bored way possible he turned his dark eyes down towards the shifting figure beside him, stiffly gathering herself up into sitting position.

As her pale eyes, lit brightly by the fire's heat scanned the heavens he watched as fear ripped over her features.

"We... we're out in the open!"

Annoyed he turned away back to the fire. "There's nothing I can't outrun or lose a fight against here." He muttered. "Calm down before your heart explodes."

A startled and wary look crossed her face as she snapped her head towards him then, and shakily she pinched her lips together. He wondered what words she was trying to crush to silence between her clenched jaw.

"It will be dawn in only a few hours." He added. "You can forage while we continue on."

Shivering as she pushed herself away from the fire the girl nodded. "I t-thank you." And as the silence stretched he watched out of the corner of his eye as she studied her hands, and traced a pale pink scar that now decorated her thigh where his wing had so easily sliced. With growing quickness her fingers fluttered over the pink lines that were all that was left of her wounds, ending at her lips which had been so parched and dry they had cracked and bled. Now they were pink and smooth, plump as though she had been well fed and watered.

"I...I'm not bleeding." she whispered, almost to herself although her gaze fixed on him a moment later and he refrained from looking back.

"You were dying." It was a careless uninterested explanation.

Lips pinching hard together again she stared, and then looked at the faint scar on her thigh. Tracing it with her pale dirty finger.

"...y-you gave me your blood." There was no questioning tone and so he did not reply, despite her bewildered stare.

After an extended silence broken only by the cracking of the wood in the fire he muttered. "Sleep. I will not be slowing down despite your foraging, you will have to move quickly if you want to eat."

Swallowing hard the girl nodded and then, even as she settled curled tightly a little ways behind him further from the fire than seemed necessary she whispered, "What s-should I call you?"

"Whatever you want."

"...sir?"

He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed, but it escaped out of him before he had a chance to snatch it back, just a short half amused breath sarcastic in it's mirth. "No."

"M...master?" There was pain in the word when she said it and he turned to look over at her, frowning. Her pale eyes glowed, bright like a feline beast or the moon intact and doubled. He gazed back and felt a twinge of homesickness rip through his chest.

"Just Sasuke." Turning back to the fire he frowned, clenching his hands unncessarily in his pockets.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to hear what she said next, as it was so quiet, and so long after his statement. Thickly weighed with sleep her voice breezed beneath the tinder snapping and cracking as it burned.

"I'm Hinata."

The light of Solatta was already rising and staining the sky a brilliant orange by the time he breathed out a sigh, musing quietly to himself.

"Hinata."

Behind him, out of his sight Hinata's half closed eyes watched and her careful ears heard, drawing a puzzled frown to sketch itself across her forehead.

* * *

They arrived at the village when the suns rose to mark the noon times, casting two shadows for every living thing that walked.

Thanks to Lee's contact, the elders and half the valley had crowded at the base of the mountain path so rarely walked by their people, waiting with bated breath for the return of the Warren.

Neji, long ago placed in charge of the protection of his younger cousins had thought he would return with two bodies mutilated and gored if he was lucky. And so returning as he did with one living breathing creature was not as bad as he had anticipated.

Still, the pain in his chest and the metal taste in his mouth made it hard to forget that the elder more gentle of his wards was out there somewhere or very possibly dead.

There was no time for stopping to discuss the situation. With Hanabi in his arms still beyond all knowledge he and Tenten barged through the waiting crowd, parting it like a fish through water, heading towards the distant shelter of the walled Hawk Eyed Villa.

Murmurs followed their path, whispers passed down turned lips and worried eyes. The quest had taken the daughters of the Hawk Eyed two weeks longer than anticipated, and only then did the clan send out their Warren to find them alive or dead.

Many in the valley had anticipated that the Warren too would not be returning. The world beyond their mountains was too wild, too angry, too close to death. No one could survive out there alone, but if anyone stood even a small chance it was them.

Like the shadow she was, Tenten followed close behind Neji. Her hand ached to touch between his shoulder blades where pain surely burned from the strain of carrying his cousin through such long distances but she refrained under the watchful eyes of the elders and village. Keeping her eyes down and her mouth closed she followed until the wooden carved walls of the villa came into view and as they stepped through the white shining doors into the courtyard she fell back.

Instead of following she watched him disappear into the primary residence, deeper into the villa than she had ever been allowed. Servants surrounded him. People of all types, healers, elders, family.

Quiet as a whisper a tall muscled young man appeared beside her, letting out a breath as his wide perpetually surprised eyes clapped on her. Sighing loudly she finally turned to look at her brother's face.

Lee blinked his eyes rapidly, and had he been someone else perhaps tears would have tinged the lashes. But they were Lee and Tenten, with no clan blood to speak of, no special abilities but those gifted by the Hawk Eyed. Just orphans, willingly serving those more blessed... or perhaps more cursed.

"Brother." Her smile was shaky and he smiled back, drawing her into his arms to squeeze the comfort back into her bones.

"You were missing from me." He pressed his mouth hard to the soft skin of her temple and she sighed.

At least she was home.

* * *

When she woke the sun was largely fallen to the embrace of the mountains. She could see Solatta already a sliver against the black of the range and Luminatus close behind, racing after it's sibling.

Sibling.

Sister.

Eyes widening Hanabi scrambled out of the soft cotton matting on the floor, throwing the blanket off with a fury that sent the servant who had been dozing by her side into a startled tizzy of words she did not hear.

"Where is my Sister?" Hanabi gasped, all sense of decorum shattering in her mind as she pushed past the servant to the heavy wooden door. It flung open with a bang as she entered the corridor and dizzy she studied her familiar home. The honey toned wood frames of the halls, the plaster painted white between panels.

Light flooded in from all the windows, some round, others square, placed carefully and a little insanely on the walls. When the wind blew hard through the court yard, slamming into the walls spotted with the strangely shaped and placed holes the windows sang. They caught the air like a flute, sighing their melody soft and gentle through the whole villa.

Having so many windows also allowed her to hear that outside in the court yard the voices of the elders were raised in argument. The council was meeting.

"Tch!" She hissed, rushing down the stairs to the main floor closely followed by the older woman who had obviously been left to watch her while she slept.

Questions, so many they flooded her mind swamped her. Where was her sister? How long had she been back? Who had gone out to get her? Surely, surely no one had died for her rescue. Surely they had no sent someone as a sacrifice for her life.

Hitting the tile of the veranda with her bare feet made her pause, watching the crowd of elders speaking loudly back and forth. There was nothing calm about this meeting. Usually, a council consisted of many teas, servants carefully robed in red, gray and white serving their black clad leaders. The men and women sat on cushions in the blazing sun of morning, sipping on the tea and discussing in calm voices the issues of the village, the clan and the world that was beyond their valley mountain walls, dying.

This held no such civility.

"The heiress should have left the hunting to someone with more skill. If Hanabi had been backed by a more aggressive hunter-"

"Who are you do deny the heir of the Clan her right? Who are you to look your future leader in the face and say she may not go after the star? That is-or was- her Calling!"

"Hinata knew something! She foretold the demise of the ones who went to hunt the star! We did not listen!"

"Perhaps they never met the star? Perhaps something else took the heiress?"

"The Warren says that Hanabi was found at the site of it's landing. Is that not true, Neji?"

Voices shouted, people pushed and prodded, the dust lifted at their feet from the courtyard stones.

Hanabi's eyes filtered through the black robes of the elders for her cousin, her heart in her throat.

Neji. Of course he would have gone after them when they did not return. Of course he would have volunteered. A knot tightened in her throat and finally, catching sight of her tall stoic cousin she ran.

"Neji!"

Her voice, so clear and strong made silence erupt among the gaggle of gray haired elders, faces turning to her just as she shoved through their crowd and into their midst, throwing her arms around her cousin's waist and nearly sending them both in a tumble to the ground.

Steadying them with a gasp Neji lifted the girl so precious to him to his chest, straining to breathe through the relief. "Hanabi!"

Voices erupted again, loud and braying over each other to be heard.

"The second daughter!"

"She walks!"

"Was she not in an unnatural sleep?"

"No wounds, no injuries!"

With her face pressed so hard into the softness of Neji's shirt Hanabi heard little, focused instead on the smell of coconut oil and orange water that always accompanied her cousin's skin.

Home. She was home, home, home.

Softly, and before anyone could say anything more Neji whispered in her ear.

"I'm so glad you're okay, little fire. But the council waits for no one. Think fast, Hinata's life is in the balance."

Growing still, Hanabi breathed in deep, her mind sparking to life, ears listening.

"Did you meet the star?"

"Where is your sister?"

"What has happened to the heiress?"

"The blood, the sleep- what has happened?"

Through the chaos Hanabi winced, moving to draw a breath, peeling herself from Neji's body with some effort. His arm held her waist tightly to his, supporting her as though he expected her to fall at any moment.

Her cousin, her darling Warren had gone after them. Emotion burned in her chest in thanks, and steeling her jaw she went to speak, only to pause at the sound of a not often heard bass tone ordering silence.

The elders shut their mouths as though magicked into submission. Heads bowed and arms lowered as they turned to the back of the crowd where a man who looked remarkably like Neji stood. Where her cousin still had the smooth skin and handsome features of youth, her father's jaw was lined, his forehead creased with worries. The pale eyes of their bloodline focused on her and she blinked back uncertainly.

"I am sure that Hanabi has much to tell, and should we want to hear it she would be willing to speak if given the opportunity." His eyes flashed over the crowd of overly excited elders and like dogs scolded no one raised their heads despite the rise of blood to cheeks in humiliation.

"But she has just endured a quest not many of us could have stomached. I will speak to her in private and relay all pertinent information to the council in several hours. Please, be prepared to be summoned." Nodding at Neji the Hawk Eyed Clan's leader motioned back to the veranda and holding her stiffly still Neji pulled Hanabi along through the watching, now silent council.

Hanabi let out a worried breath but said nothing as she and her cousin stepped into the veranda and towards the stairs to her father's private rooms, followed closely by his quick stern step.

"In here." He murmured, opening the door to a plain room bright with the orange light of the setting Luminatus. Beyond the wide windows the villa and village buzzed with activity before nightfall. The people bustled about, shuttering windows and gathering their children to the safety of their homes. At night the more bold of the creatures that prowled the outskirts of their mountain forests sometimes dared to enter their territory and there was no easier prey than the small.

Neji and Hanabi started at the sight of Tenten leaning against one of the smooth wooden pillars on either side of the window, her brother behind her.

On the other side of the room two other willing life long servants of the Hawk Eyed Clan stood silently, their faces strained. It took a moment for Hanabi to place them but after a breath she recognized them as Kiba and Shino, Hinata's training partners.

"Hanabi." Tenten sighed, the relief on her voice obvious, although she clamped her mouth shut at a look from Hiashi, lowering her brown eyes to the ground.

"Speak." Hiashi murmured sternly, moving around to the low wooden table that was the only piece of furniture in the room. Slowly he lowered himself to his knees on the cushion placed there and looked at Hanabi expectantly.

Lips pressed to a thin line, Hanabi followed his example and sat on the other side of the table on her knees, her hands tight in her lap.

"We found the star."

A rustle of movement passed through the others, Lee breathed in deeply, expanding his muscled chest beneath his shirt. Kiba straightened and Shino closed his eyes.

Only Neji remained still, eyes locked across the room with Tenten, jaw tight.

"Is your sister dead?" Hiashi's voice did not hesitate on the words, did not even seem to be asking anything of importance. Hanabi strained to keep her body from shivering as a wave of cold swept through her despite the warmth of the dusk light on her left side.

"He was impossible to defeat." She whispered softly, remembering the paleness of his skin, the easy wave of the black razor sharp wings, the shattering of the glass coating the concave crater where he landed.

"We were not prepared."

"He was in fighting form?" Hiashi frowned, for this was what Hinata had argued, her voice shaking with fear tangible in the air as she released the words from her mouth. The stars that fell in vast hordes a century before had been dying or dead, their bodies wounded and broken, the landing finishing off any strength left.

He could hear her, whispering in his ear now. "There was a war- they were falling from battle... they were defeated stars. If one comes now, Father it will be on purpose. It will not _want_ to die."

"He took us both out without straining himself." Hanabi whispered. "We did not stand a chance."

"The blood, on your tunic." A strain in his voice betrayed him for a moment then, and Hanabi's eyes flickered with surprise and then softened.

"It... it is mine."

"But how-?" Kiba suddenly began, stopping at the look that Hiashi threw over his daughter's head at him.

"I was wounded." Hanabi placed a hand on her shoulder, on her side, where the glass had pierced, recalling the angel's hands coated in her blood. "I had broken ribs, and I was drowning. The blood was in my lungs, in my throat." She swallowed, and had she been more like her sister, her eyes would have filled with tears. Instead she closed her eyes.

"My sister offered herself in exchange for me."

"No." This was whispered by Shino, and it carried the weight of all their despair for Shino spoke so rarely many who knew him still did not know the soft tenor of his voice.

"The angel saw her tears." Hanabi opened her eyes to look at Hiashi then, jaw tight. Weeping was something punishable by bamboo rod in their Clan, and Hinata had been in constant breech of the rule. Hiashi looked back at her, carved from stone. "He called it starwater. For her willing service he made me drink his blood to heal my wounds, and left with her. I do not remember anything else."

The silence thickened at the end of her telling, and Hiashi let out a long breath. "She must have known of her value. She must have known she had something to bargain with." More carefully now he whispered, "She is alive then."

Hanabi gave a furtive nod. "He needs her."

"We have three options." Hiashi continued quickly. "One, track them down like prey and steal her when you slay the angel."

Neji snapped his head to his uncle then in surprise, astounded.

"Two, steal her without engaging the fallen star."

Tenten straightened, studying the stoic leader of the clan wonderingly.

"Or three..." He fixed Neji with a look that told him how much he disliked what he was about to say. "...if the first two options do not prove possible, go to the Scaled Worm, to have him find her with his tongue."

Although everyone was swimming in their shock it was Hanabi who whispered out her question.

"...you want us to try to bring her back?" Breathing hard she looked at her father, searching for a shred of affection. They were a warrior clan, the only one of their kind. In them all of the valley had pinned their hopes of survival and as the years passed and the crops failed more and more pressure had made them slaves to the village and their needs. This slavery left little room for love, hardly any for tenderness. Hinata had been born as delicate as a flower petal in an armory full of swords.

"The council will want another attempt at the star." Hiashi replied, brow furrowed. "They will want someone again to bring back it's body to rejuvenate the fields but Hinata knew more about this than we all did together. We did not listen." He swallowed. "Bring back my daughter."

Straightening, Kiba and Shino nodded, along with Tenten and Lee.

"You must remain here." Hiashi murmured to Hanabi then, watching without surprise as she flinched. "Father... father, no please-"

"Someone must lead this village." His eyes flickered to Neji. "It is the Warren's job to risk life and limb for his charges, it is your job to be here for your people. Hinata knew this, do not let her sacrifice go to waste."

Clenching her jaw hard Hanabi bowed her head.

"For our glory."

Together, the rest complied.

"And for those of the Hawk Eyed Blood."

* * *

The blood of the angel had done things to her body she did not think were possible. Besides knitting together wounds that she had been fairly sure had infection and therefore death inside them, her lips were plump as though she had rehydrated herself in the coolest of rivers. Her head was clear of the painful cobwebs of hunger, her muscles felt sleek and ready to spring.

Besides the tangled mess of her black hair and the tattered shreds of her clothing she felt better than she had in a very long time.

He kept a relentless pace despite the fact she was gathering as they walked and sometimes she whimpered internally when a tree loaded heavy with edibles presented itself only to take too long to climb without losing him in the forest maze.

On the third pass of such abundance she stopped, clenching her fists tightly together, hoping that the silence of her footsteps no longer cracking the underbrush beneath her boots would signal she was no longer following.

It took two seconds for him to pause and look over his shoulder at her among the dark browns and grays of the wood, brows furrowed in question.

"...C-can I climb?" She finally murmured, turning her eyes up to the foliage above where the branches swayed in the breeze. Thick leaves the size of dinner plates made the light of Luminatus and Solatta spotty as it landed on the ground below, moving like the water of the hot springs back home, bubbling. Among the pale gray branches of the loomloom tree was the spiky lime green baubles of the nuts. Cracked open they held within their hard shells a butter that dripped thick and syrupy and tasted of vanilla and sugar, packed with protein and easily accessed energy.

A handful could be kept for several days at a time without spoiling and to pass them by without picking seemed a sin.

Sasuke's frown did not lessen although it was more from disbelief than annoyance as he eyed the trunk of the tree. Smooth bark covered it's tall and vertical height, with the first forking branches being easily fifteen feet high. It's roots twisted and turned like squid tentacles through the crackling dead leaves of the soil, giving no perch for starting a climb.

He eyed her, standing a tiny five feet and a handful of inches at most.

"I don't know." He admitted, "Can you?" He certainly had no plans on climbing and picking fruit for her hungry little mouth. Like a rabbit she had not stopped munching on leafy handfuls or fistfuls of berries since morning.

Blinking hard Hinata stared at him, her mouth a thin line that seemed almost insulted.

Without another word she turned to the tree, cocked her head at it as though gauging an opponent and then surprising him she ran.

The joy of feeling her muscles happy and free, pulsing with the health that his blood had poured into her being was almost enough to make her smile, although she contained it. Smoothly she propelled herself off the first bucking thick root that pushed from the ground slamming her next step into the smoothness of the trunk and tossing her weight backwards arched in a tumble back from the tree high enough to catch the sloping young branch closest to the forest floor with her fingers.

Unable to contain her grin then she hung for a moment, watching the wide leaves disturbed by her antics spiraling down to the ground slowly before swinging her legs and wrapping them tightly around the branch. With a little bit of grunting she was crouching on the limb and hesitantly she glanced at him.

One brow was delicately raised, and if she had been her sister she would have stuck out her tongue at him for her victory. Instead she strained not to blush and tight roped towards the trunk, using the more sturdy branches near it to rise twenty and then thirty feet into the air. Happily, she ignored the sappy residue coating her hands as she gathered the nuts in the piece of fabric she ripped from the edge of her torn and tattered tunic.

In silence she worked until a sizzle of irritation seemed to prick at the back of her consciousness and glancing down at him again she quickly snaked down the trunk and jumped the last ten feet, landing easily on the forest ground with her treasures.

Already having cracked one to suck on while she worked she hesitated, then offered him the other half. "W...would you like to try it?"

He stared, black eyes puzzled before shaking his head.

"You're going to need everything you can get."

She followed, agreeing with him although she was puzzled by the disappointment that made her return her hand to her side.

Their silence continued for several paces with Hinata cuddling the tangle of nuts in her arms, sucking on the butter within absently while she eyed the threatening wood, keen eyes wary, ears listening.

"It seems like you should be able to live off the forest if not the fields." He suddenly grumbled, and it occurred to her that he had been thinking hard as they walked, about her climb and subsequent snack. "Why do your people insist on waiting to kill my kind if you have such abundance? Every few steps you take a bite of something."

Blushing hard at the insinuation of gluttony Hinata frowned, rubbing at a sticky bit of sap now black on her chin from her climb.

"My... my Clan goes to the forest to gather for the village every day." She muttered. "We risk life and limb every minute we spend in the forests around our valley. The beasts have grown desperate and vindictive." She sniffed. "The firespawn have made many half breeds. It is not safe to wander too far into the forest, and in the winter the plants refuse to give sustenance, so we hunt flesh for the villagers."

He turned sharply, staring at her. "You said you don't eat flesh."

She paused, looking sheepish. "I... I don't... we give all we gather to the village, our Clan lives off the little we can ferment and dry during the plentiful months. And the left overs of the gleaning through the mountains... and anything the village offer from the fields, if there's growth at all." For a moment her stomach rolled at the thought of eating flesh, the blood and the smell of the carcass being cleaned made her dizzy. The flesh filled bellies and eased the pain of hunger, but sickness seemed to pervade those who ate it more easily than those of the Clan who needed to be in true fighting form to go out into the wild. For that reason her Clan wore only white, for compassion and practiced only killing in necessity, red for the bloodshed that stained them, a burden only they bore and gray for when they made their first kill.

Sasuke glanced at the bundle in her arms, at her rosy cheeks and remembered the almost giddy grin on her face as she cracked the first nut open in the tree to suck the fluid from inside.

"Have you ever had that many to yourself?" He motioned with his chin to the bundle in her arms and Hinata looked down at the dozen nuts, glistening in their spiky lime green shells.

Nervously she licked her lip, and looked back up. "No."

When he said nothing nor turned away she added, sounding almost embarrassed. "I have...never tried one."

There were only a handful of loomloom trees in the wood of the mountains close enough to forage from every year. Out of the hundreds of nuts gathered by her clan only a crate of them would be theirs to consume, and since it was a sweetener when dried no one got a chance to enjoy them fresh. They would all be cracked, the syrup dried in the heat of the suns, pounded to powder and distributed in small bits through the winter that followed as a reprieve from the stale barley cakes and wheat porridge that were their usual fare.

His eyes looked far away, as though this was something he had not considered and feeling that perhaps she had a chance to speak she breathed in hard.

"I did not _want_ to kill you." The words tumbled out as though she had forced them to escape before losing her nerve. "But... but... I do not want my people to die."

A flash of something struck through his face like a rip of lightning and he turned sharply away, stalking like a panther through the jungle.

"Make haste."

His order was stern and made her jump quickly after him, the sweetness of the loomloom butter suddenly less pleasurable in her mouth.

* * *

It was becoming abundantly clear that the hunt for the star was what the council of elders wanted, despite Hiashi's stern attempts to steer them in a different direction. One less likely to result in all of their party dead.

Together Tenten and Lee sat right behind Neji in the semi circle of black robed gray and white heads. Of all the people gathered only their dark brown and black heads shown with youth. For a moment Tenten sighed deeply, looking up at the swirling indigo and blue sky, pondering how people too old to go out into the frigid deadly world beyond their valley were the ones deciding their path.

"We are running out of the bone powder from the last star." One of the youngest elders was snapping, her voice sharp as a whip and her eyes although half blind were still daggers as they tried to focus on Hiashi at the mouth of the semi circle.

Hiashi sighed, unable to reply as another elder jumped in, his gravelly old voice shaky, his liver spotted hands trembling as he clenched them in his lap.

"The star could potentially destroy all of our best hunters. What then would the people live off of? During the winter when the village begs for sustenance and we have nothing in the stores to give for their children's porridge who will go out into the wild to slay the creatures that lurk there?" He raised both his bushy eyebrows to stare at the slightly younger elder, who clenched her jaw tight. "Will it be you?"

Offended the woman gathered herself like a chicken rustling it's feathers and Hiashi intervened.

"My daughter... our heiress..." He looked at each face in turn slowly. "...Hinata knew more about the stars than any of us gave her credit. She foresaw the demise of the hunt, she even saw that a fallen star would come not wounded as history tells us the last were, but living, and with no intention to simply lay down and die. "

Silence reigned as the others digested this warily.

"She knew to trade her tears for the life of her younger sister, so that one of the heirs would return remarkably unscathed. What we need is her wisdom, gained over years of study..."

Surprising everyone Neji's voice, never before heard on the council, broke the silence. "Study that the council gravely punished her for."

There was a shift in the silence that followed, a sort of shameful rustle of black robes as those who had spoken against the heiress and her eccentric reading habits bowed their heads or looked away.

"What if the angel has moved too far into the Dryness or flown over the Rot?" One of the elders suddenly broke in, and his eyes were not on Hiashi but on Neji, challenging. "What will you do if when you return to the site of his landing there is no trail to follow? What then?"

Behind him Tenten and Lee straightened their spines until they were sentries like the lions of ancient legend, their eyes flashing.

Neji let out a breath softly before answering. "We will go to the Scaled Worm." He kept himself from wincing although almost every elder in the circle was unable to do the same. "We will ask him to locate her by tasting the air with his tongue."

"...he... he could demand one of your lives- all of your lives..." And although the elder was polite enough to glance at Tenten and Lee like they mattered they and everyone knew that it was Neji who worried them, third in line for Clan Head, and with Hinata already gone...

"I am the Warren." He bowed his head. "My life is willingly given to this task."

Behind him Lee and Tenten bowed much lower, pressing their foreheads between the triangle shape of their fingers and thumbs on the cobble stone of the court yard ground. By extension, the two siblings also surrendered their lives.

When the dawn came and Solatta stretched it's golden fingers through the navy of the night sky Neji looked at Tenten desperately, his face so tense before now cracking, pale eyes pleading as they stood within the shadows of the Villa entrance.

"Tenten, _please_."

Behind them, waiting patiently stood her brother, Kiba and Shino, their packs on their shoulders, their cloaks neatly tied around their throats.

Shifting her pack carefully she smiled, searching his face. "What excuse would you give the elders for leaving me behind?"

"It is not an excuse. Hanabi needs a companion, someone besides her Father on her side." Neji tried, knowing it was a weak attempt. Tenten's grin only spread.

"I did not give my freedom for Hanabi." She grinned still. "I offered my life to the Hawk Eyed Clan, in service of their Warren... in service of _you_. Konohamaru long ago promised his blood for your cousin. She has her own allies."

The swallow he struggled with made her hand itch to place itself on his cheek. Gripping her pack fiercely instead she whispered. "If we are to die, I want to do so with you."

Behind them Lee's voice called, low and warning and urgent. "Sister... my lord Warren."

Neji's eyes flickered from Tenten's face to the veranda where a pair of elders walked, their eyes focusing on him and Tenten with curious frowns not entirely friendly.

"This is inappropriate." He whispered, although if it was to her or to himself it was hard to tell. Stepping away abruptly he turned, heading towards the others waiting.

"Come, Tenten. Do not dawdle."

Wincing at the scolding tone Tenten followed, head bowed, trying to ignore the rip of frustration and hurt in her chest.

From the second floor porch, watching with her heart in her throat Hanabi frowned after them, watching as they disappeared over the crest of the hill that led to the village beyond and then the forest she had had to travel through with her sister only a month ago.

"Veil keep them, guide them, bring them back to me."

Unsure if anyone would hear her prayer she glanced up to where the last of the few remaining stars glimmered in the half light of dawn. Once, as a child she had prayed to those above to end the hunger and the ever encroaching crawl of the Dryness and Rot that seemed to spread over any land that wasn't touched by the angel bone dust her clan spread.

Now, no longer a child she did not bother. Stars were for slaying, not for praying to.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	4. Discrepancies

**_When i started this I figured it would be a large fic._**

 ** _This is a monster._**

 ** _A monster I tell you._**

 ** _Now, when I say monster, I think most people think "Oh, 100 k probably"_**

 ** _No darlings._**

 ** _I don't think I've ever written a thing so big. We'll see how we fare._**

 ** _Thank you so much to all who reviewed, and to the politeness I found in all the different messages, I appreciate that very much because even if we disagree I can at least say "Well, they told me so kindly."_**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

 _Discrepancies_

It made sense that none of the healers or elders understood just how much of her body ached to move, itched to run, to fight to play. Hanabi stared stonily at the older woman before her examining her limbs before letting her out of her bed. Carefully, with many pauses and frowns and sucking of her toothless gums she slid her leathery hands from Hanabi's wrists where her arms were stretched out and continued over her shoulders and back, checking and rechecking for faults.

"I am more than well." Hanabi finally allowed herself to say as politely as she could. On the other side of the dividing screen painted the beautiful colors of the sky at dusk her father remained silent.

"There is no harm in making sure. The star blood was undiluted."

Hanabi frowned then, snatching her hand from the old crone of a healer with a little more force than necessary before gathering her clothing from the wood floor, ignoring the woman's mute protestations.

"Hinata would not have traded without knowing it was safe. She knew." With the vexation clearly showing on her face she shoved her arms into the sleeves of her long white robe walking past her father into the hall.

He followed, noting with approval the cat like grace of his youngest. He had to admit, since her waking she had been the same Hanabi that he remembered despite the brutal injuries she claimed to have sustained, perhaps even a little more refined.

"Where are you going?" He finally allowed himself to ask, her steps were purposeful, making the red sash she had neglected to tie around her waist flutter in the breeze that filtered through the many windows of their Villa.

"To the library." Hanabi mused, throwing a look over her shoulder at her father to better see the surprise that would snap over his face. He did not disappoint, pausing abruptly at the top of the stairs without another word. Finally alone for the first time in several days Hanabi eyed the Villa, getting a feel for the tension that seemed to have seeped into every crevice and smeared itself on all the walls. Servants of the Clan moved through the halls and courtyard with their heads bowed, frowns marring their faces.

Since the departure of the Warren and the four shadows there had been a tension palpable even from behind the closed entry to her chambers. Spring had come with a flurry of winged creatures taking to the trees on the outskirts of the valley and flowers rising from the ground sprinkled with the last of the star dust shimmered with life that everyone worried would not return.

Food was being carefully stored, rationed, nervously recounted.

Hanabi eyed the sacks of picked tubers being placed into crates of straw by members of the household still sweaty from the hard work of digging out the plant life always keeping their eyes peeled for beasts prowling for an easy meal. Crowding the hallway to the cellars they muttered to each other as they divided the roots into careful piles.

"Lady Hanabi." At the sight of her the youngsters jumped, moving to stand politely aside, eyes down.

The youngest of the group was a mere ten years old, his lack of gray clothing setting him apart from the others who bore some form of it on their bodies, all but Konohamaru, who like Tenten, Lee, Kiba and Shino only wore white, denoting a servant willingly giving themselves to the service of the Clan for life.

They, however were not to bear the stain of blood shed or the gray denoting an accomplished hunter. Even if they were to kill, the burden of the death was borne by the one that they had offered their life to. In Konohamaru's case, Hanabi.

"It appears you had a successful day." Hanabi murmured politely, touching on the tubers with long fingers. They varied in colors from deep nearly black indigo to bright agonizing orange, dusted faintly with residue soil, smelling like earth and water and sustenance.

"Over a hundred pounds today, Lady Hanabi." The little one murmured in reply, the pride in his voice just barely hidden. Smiling slightly Hanabi stepped around their work, shoving the heavy wooden door hard on it's tracks to let herself into the cellar below where the air was cool but stagnant, and nothing but darkness stared back from the staircase.

"Well done." She finally replied, then letting her pale gaze land on Konohamaru, "Could I perhaps borrow you for a few minutes?"

Face carefully placid the young man nodded his head and after instructing the rest of his troop on how to continue their work followed down the stone steps into the sudden freezing air below.

As they turned the corner into the stretching expanse of the cellar Konohamaru fiddled behind him for a moment with a basket sitting on a wooden box. Like a bird cage it was rounded at the top, with a handle for removing the tightly knit woven lid. Beneath it bamboo held together a compartment where handfuls of dragonmoths dozed sleepily until he gave the basket a shake. With indignant little buzzing squeaks the insects fluttered their wings, their luminescent bodies slowly pulsing to life and lighting Hanabi's anxious face.

"...I cannot express how glad I am to see you on your feet." Konohamaru stated suddenly, and Hanabi blinked back in surprise, her anxiety momentarily derailed by the uncharacteristic words coming out of his mouth. When she paused wordlessly he plunged on.

"I saw the Warren arrive with you..." He swallowed, and his eyes refused to move from her face. "Much of the village thought you dead."

Wincing, Hanabi turned her head, studying the rows and rows of shelving that stretched into the darkness not yet lit by the glow of more dragonmoths. Baskets and sacks were carefully placed within the long stretching room, it's ceiling low and oppressive. From wood beams holding the stone above bunches of herbs and drying mushrooms hung upside down, the scent of dry earth and cleanliness mixing with spices and other pungent flavors too convoluted to make sense.

"...I forgot that the return was rather dramatic. I was fine even then." She flexed her fingers, studying her opening palm and the curling digits in the half light of the dragonmoth lamp. "The angel's blood tasted like the strongest of spirits, it burned even within my veins." Turning her face up to Konohamaru she smiled a bit weakly. "I'm sorry to have worried you."

"You faced one then?" Although his features remained carefully smooth Hanabi caught the slight flash of curiosity in his eyes and her mouth flattened to a thin line. "Yes. He was... everything Hinata said he would be and more." Turning she faced the shelves again, eyeing their creaking ancient wood.

"And she knew it because of the scrolls and books in here somewhere."

"Ah." Konohamaru suddenly understood, lifting the lamp higher up to take in more of the cellar. It was hard to imagine that the place had once been filled with scrolls and ancient volumes written by hand on leathers and pounded cotton fibers, made from inks that Hinata still couldn't replicate. It had long been abandoned as such. The space held more value filled with foodstuffs than it did literature.

Her eccentricity as an heiress had been most obvious as she became older and every year on the day of her birth she chose to spend all of her free hours spreading the volumes out on the courtyard. Affectionately she called it the Sunning of the Books, spending hours exposing each page and inch of scroll to the heated touch of Solatta and Luminatus. The light burnt out any mold that may have tried to take hold on the pages, preserving them for another rotation of the seasons.

"I am out of my depth here." Hanabi admitted, and together they wandered down one of the corridors made from two heavy laden shelves. "But perhaps there is something within the books that may be of use to us now."

"Perhaps." Konohamaru's amusement at her reluctance to read was only thinly veiled and Hanabi shot him a look he returned with features dutifully placid. "Well, that's why you're here." She muttered, catching sight of the stacks of books in the very back, shunted aside for bags of barley flour and pounded bean paste.

"I live to serve." His choice of words might have been sarcastic, had it not been he who spoke them. Glancing over her shoulder at him intently Hanabi sighed. "...I know."

Unlike her sister and Neji, who had gained two shadows in the course of their life Hanabi had only ever had Konohamaru, who had pledged himself as young as eight to her service. Hanabi herself had only been a child, and not fully understood the implications of his determination. There had been steel in his eye as he stated again and again before the council of elders and her father his firm belief that he was supposed to be at her side forever.

His mother had broken down to tears, crumbling on her knees with her face in her hands as she lamented the loss of her son. Once pledged Konohamaru was no longer hers to claim in any way, truly like a shadow he belonged to Hanabi and Hanabi alone.

She could still remember the weeping words that had come wet from between his mother's fingers.

 _"Why? Konohamaru, my son, why?"_

His face had been so young, so set and resolute as he looked back sadly.

 _"I love her."_

Despite attempting to wheedle out the reason for his choice of words at the ceremony of his binding Hanabi still had no idea what the small boned eight year old Konohamaru had meant when he had made such a claim. Love had little to do with binding, as shadows could never be involved with the Clan members they willingly clove to. Usually it had more to do with fealty, to the Clan in general who sacrificed so much for the village and it's livelihood but also the particular Clan member and the Calling they were raised to perform. It stemmed from compassion, sometimes friendship. It could have nothing to do with love. Especially in their case. Before his approach to the council Hanabi couldn't recall seeing Konohamaru before, but then she had been so young herself.

"Well..." Hanabi muttered, trying to dispel her wandering thoughts as she picked up several heavy volumes and settled herself on a box against the wall. "May as well begin."

Wordlessly he agreed, placing the lamp high on the shelf to shine on them both while he opened a scroll.

The smell of ancient words lifted from the pages, and Hanabi smiled grimly, remembering that same perfume on Hinata's tunics, tangled within the flowery scent of her hair. Lamenting how much Hanabi had teased her sister for her ink stained fingers and her tired eyes from spending nights in the cellar poring over ancient history she squinted in the dim light.

"Thank you for helping me, Konohamaru." Her voice was absent minded, her fingers busy turning pages.

Studying her with care out of the corner of her eye Konohamaru smiled, but only slightly.

* * *

They had been wandering longer than any other day. Fearfully, she skimmed over the ground like a ghost, her soft soled leather boots allowing her the delicate touch of a wraith as she tried her best to disappear into the lengthening shadows. With her heart getting louder and louder in her ears the forest around her darkened and grew more still.

Only the breeze whispered, the eerie silence punctured by the slithering or creeping of invisible creatures in the dark.

The only one callous enough to storm on with the same nonchalance as always was Sasuke. In the light of the moon his shoulders glowed a brilliant alabaster white and although his movements were the same lithe gait of the creatures Hinata had always aimed to stay away from in the woodland, he had none of the quiet they possessed.

Breath hitching in her throat every time he cracked a branch beneath his feet or crushed the underbrush with impatient steps she followed, aching to distance herself from his siren call to battle. It irked her deeply that he was either so arrogant or so naive. But then, being the star burdened with ending life on the Veil perhaps made one bitter.

"...a...are we...?" she paused her whispering just long enough to check that he was listening. His head cocked slightly, only mildly interested in her conversation. "Are we...not going to stop for the night?"

Days ago, having woken with his blood filtering through her veins she would have clenched her teeth and plowed through the night walk in the forest, feeling the hum of life hardly contained within the walls of her circulatory system. The energy had burned, itching to be used.

Now, days after the silver had been dripped into her mouth while her mind wandered in darkness the sting of the energy had ebbed to a normal throb of weary bones and tired muscles. If he intended for her to make it through the entire night on foot there was the distinct possibility that she might disappoint.

"No, however you have been so slow of late due to refusing to sleep that I hardly see the point of stopping." His irritated reply only took him a second to toss over his shoulder and Hinata swallowed, wincing at the volume with which he spoke.

It had been days now that she had been aching to ask him to lower his voice, walk more carefully, to watch his surroundings. The woodland was a fierce place, able to provide bountiful foods for those courageous- or foolish enough to attempt to survive it. Much of the foliage was still edible and obliging in it's offerings of sustenance but other growing things had learned to defend themselves. Plants that once would have been happy to be climbed as ropes now tangled feet and twisted limbs out of joint like the slithering wingless reptiles of old. Voluminous flowers painted in beautiful bright colors with beads of sweet juices on the stems of their deep cavernous throats snapped closed on unsuspecting prey, squeezing the life and blood from them to boost their growth in times of drought. There was more than just predators out in the wild to worry about. Besides the plants and beasts...there were also other things. Things Hinata didn't want to even think about.

These vicious creatures were more common further from the Valley and it's ring of protective mountains marked by the angel bone powder her Clan spread every spring. But although she had lost her bearings many days ago she knew she was quite distant from those mountains now.

The ground had been in a deep incline for some time and they traveled downwards until the trees began to thin and where once they would have been covered in teal and indigo shaded lichen the forests had turned into a maze of thin trees whose trunks she could encircle with both hands. Their branches were scrawny and unreliable even to an expert climber such as herself and offered no shelter from the possible danger below.

And she knew there were things crawling around, eyeing them in the dark. The feel of being stalked had started not long after she had woken with her wounds healed and her head clear. Sometimes she caught glowing pairs of eyes- too many crowded into a space too small for more than one face- through the bushes in the foliage.

Other times she heard the soft hardly audible rustle of something stirring the scarlet and black leaves that splashed the ground in their audacious colors, making a carpet thick and loud when trod on carelessly.

Once she had felt the aftermath of a wing beat above when the fire had been smaller due to a lack of tinder, and although her sharp gaze had snapped to the darkness of the night sky, searching for the silhouette of whatever hunted them she saw nothing. Whatever it was seemed to reconsider and take off.

More than anything Hinata wished she had a weapon, something to use in her defense besides her dwindling energy with magic spells. Sometimes she thought about the feathers that Sasuke left behind when his wings tore through the skin of his back and considered the possibility of fashioning the razor sharpness of them into something she could feasibly use without destroying her hands on the edges. However, he had not shown his wings since the fainting and consequent drinking of his blood.

Forlorn Hinata hung her head and continued after him in the dark, pondering if he was truly capable of handling anything that the forest threw at him. The concept of him being an adversary not easily bested was not something she could deny. Her sister, quick limbed, well trained and a natural born killer had been out of her league against him. Hinata despite her struggle with the art of slaughter that her Clan had been forced to bear was too an expert killer, and between them both they had only managed to land one mild blow.

The forest however was a whole different matter. It held champions that Hinata doubted she even knew about. The books in her family's Villa had been written nearly a century ago, when the people had had time to devote to things like literature and history. They had not been updated or well kept since. People had a tendency to forget to study the world around them when all their eyes and minds could think to look for was food to fill empty bellies.

"I...I'm sorry... I find it very difficult to sleep on the ground." She began to explain after too long a pause in their conversation. Sasuke stopped abruptly in front of her and turned, a frown on his face that she only managed to see because they had entered a small sort of clearing in the path they had been walking. The moon shone down between the trees and the bushes that lined their roots, hiding them in the black and blue shadows of the growing night.

"It's... I have been trained never to do so, there are too many things that-" and she paused, right before he raised his hand in a motion of silence, because the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end and a tightness was growing up and down her back. Like having someone try to pull her spinal chord out of the top of her head she felt her shoulders straighten and stiffen, her pearl eyes wide as they stared back at Sasuke, whose jaw had flexed until the muscles of his cheek were taut as bowstrings.

The night, a moment ago rustling with a breeze, whispering with insects, bustling and busy with the flutter of wings and the pitter patter of small beasts was abruptly silent.

For a moment Hinata wondered if her heart too had stilled within her chest to listen.

Had she been looking anywhere but his face she would not have seen it in time. His eyes, so black glowed back at her brightly. Two ebony spheres that widened just a minute bit, allowing her to see the mountainous shadow that came at her from behind in their reflective shine.

Her spine so tightly stretched upwards suddenly cut loose, like a giant pair of scissors slicing through puppet strings and with a breath she let herself crumple to the ground. The creature passed in a growling feral shadow above her and with a silence that was more unnerving than any scream Sasuke hit the ground with it.

Hinata scrambled through the fluttering dry leaves on hands and knees towards the cover of the bushes. Her heart choked her and mouth dry she stared with pale eyes, intent on the battle being waged before her.

Sound seemed unnaturally loud, and the crunching wet rip of Sasuke's wings out of his body made her clench her teeth, even as she gripped the tree trunk she hid behind, gasping.

The horkney, for that's what it was, was black as the night it belonged to with metallic tips to the sleek obsidian skin of it's body. Shoulders heavy set and with paws taloned like a bird of prey it was a formidable opponent and seemed to be faring much better against the star than Hinata and Hanabi had.

The desperation in it's growling snapping jaws however was obvious. It's rib cage showed beneath the smooth black coat and it's face, long and wolfish bore patches bald and crusty, although it was hardly the thing keeping Hinata's eyes wide. It's teeth shone brightly with dribbling saliva as Sasuke wrestled with the creature upon his chest. Already the slice of it's taloned paws had made ribbons of his collarbone and wincing Hinata scrambled to her feet, searching fervently for something to help with. A branch, a rock- something to distract it and give Sasuke a moment to get out from beneath it's massive weight.

A sound finally escaped Sasuke's mouth and with his wings flapping he looked like a raven pinned by a wild dog, setting the leafy debris and dust outwards from his battle with each wing beat as he cursed beneath his breath.

"Pathetic excuse for a creature." He hissed.

With pale hands smeared with his own blood and the saliva of the horkney he grunted, holding the snapping jaws from his throat by mere inches. Hinata dashed forward, panicking as she rushed through a list of spells she might use to help, finding nothing elegant enough to be of use.

In a moment her panic was moot. With a growl that matched the beast pound for vicious pound Sasuke twisted his arms hard, and the snap of bone was sickening as the horkney's jaw dislocated in his hands.

The growling aggression coming from the rippling sinew and teeth of the beast suddenly turned to keening.

With a wail the horkney stumbled back, and the bottom half of it's face seemed to wag with the movement, it's jaw was a piece of bone held in the bag of flesh that was his bottom lip. His tongue, extremely long without the bottom of it's mouth to keep it hidden rolled out thin and glistening as it panted and whined.

Hinata's released breath was sharp, like coming out of a deep dive and with tears stinging her eyes she flung her hands into her hair. "Oh... Oh Veil, no."

Sasuke's growl was murderous as he pushed himself to his feet. Silver dripped from the wounds slashed across his chest and to Hinata's surprise as he stood he stumbled. It was the first time she had ever seen him do something even remotely human and even still the wings detracted from the normalcy as they fluttered at his back, knocking hard against a tree trunk and gauging it heavily as a result.

Before she knew what she was doing she had rushed to him, supporting his weight as his knee gave and he lowered himself back down to the ground with his back to the tree.

"Y..You're wounded- it's... it's everywhere." Hinata whispered, mostly to herself. Trying to hold him without getting the blood on her was impossible. Silver stained the shoulder of her tunic, it was coating locks of her tangled messy black hair, a smear of it throbbed at her cheek with a feeling like mint paste.

Sasuke's sigh was irritated and he leaned his head back against the tree, his chest rising and falling in rapid succession that made her suddenly realize he did in fact breathe for the sake of the oxygen and not just to sigh irritably at her.

"It'll heal." He grumbled, fixing his gaze on the horkney now stumbling as the shock of it's broken jaw seemed to really dig itself into the pain receptors of it's brain.

Shuddering Hinata followed his gaze.

"We...we have to end it. It's the only merciful thing to-"

"No." Sasuke muttered sharply, straightening himself before wiping at his chest where the wounds were already knitting together, although it was hard to tell through the mess of dirt, blood and saliva.

If her head had turned to him faster she would have pulled a muscle. Her luminous gaze fixed itself on him with force, lashes rimmed with dew drops of nourishment he sorely wanted to take although her thinly pressed mouth and the glare she was offering instead was distracting.

"No?" Such a simple question, such a lot of insubordination. A frown marked itself on his brow and he raised his chin, surprised to find himself having to defy someone whose life he technically owned.

"Let it suffer for picking a fight with a fallen star." He muttered. "Perhaps it will dissuade anymore suicidal creatures watching from trying for my blood."

"It'll starve to death, in pain." She did not stutter, her voice did not shake and for a moment Sasuke was bewildered, his face carefully placid lest it show.

"It was already starving. I've cut its suffering by half."

She was suddenly standing. Her silver covered hands a disaster and with her back to him he frowned, confusion flickering over his face for only a moment before she picked up a black feather the length and breath of a peacocks, glinting sharp as a blade edge in her hand.

He had never called her by her name in the weeks that they had been travelling, not outright. At least not for her hearing. Usually he commanded with a look or more recently the continued use of the derogatory _princess._ So when his voice escaped him it surprised them both.

"Hinata." Warning laced through his tones. "Don't."

With her chin on her shoulder she looked at him. Behind her the horkney shuddered and swayed, still dazed by it's mortal wound. Soon it would wander away, it's tail between it's legs, it's jaw flapping uselessly, the pain unbearable with each step. For a moment a flashing image of her sister, so small and delicate stained and bloody and his snapping reply to begging for her life filtered through her mind. What had he said when she had asked for Hanabi to be spared?

 _"She will die anyway."_

Hinata did not reply to the short forceful order, although her unwavering stare was enough.

He had known she was deadly, had calculated in his mind how climbing the loomloom tree was child's play to her strong flexible body. It was not difficult to remember the ease with which she had spun a rod of solid iron, blade tipped at their meeting. He remembered distinctly how much force she would have had to use to throw it at his face.

Gripping the feather in her hand was cutting into the flesh of her palm, but her hold didn't waver. Like letting herself drop from a great height her body leaned forward, inclining towards the earth and then erupted.

It wasn't a battle, the beast was beyond fighting. But the speed gave her the momentary element of surprise and saved her from an instinctive taloned paw ripping her to bits as she dodged beneath the creature's gaping wrecked maw and sliced it's throat.

The explosion of claret was instant and as she rolled away it left trails of ruby red across her tunic and face, her hair now dripping and smeared with both the beast and Sasuke's blood.

Behind her crouched body where she sat poised and silent he narrowed his dark eyes.

With a wet painful sound that almost seemed like relief the horkney slid sideways, one, two steps and then fell in a heap across the dryness of the forest leaves, scattering their papery thin bodies in a mockery of macabre confetti.

Her grip on the feather had not lessened, and he watched with interest as her blood slid as red as the animal's own down the edge of the black makeshift blade. The scarlet splattered in perfect circles on the patch of packed dirt below. Her knuckles were white with the grip in contrast to the obsidian she clenched.

"My own feathers do not wound me." His flat, unamused murmur stung. "I would not waste time attempting to use them on my throat as well."

Hinata was on him in a moment, not deadly because the feather she threw aside like so much garbage. Crouching in front of him with trails of tears leaving clean glistening streaks on her blood soaked cheeks she glared.

"I gave my word to serve you, I will not break it- please do not insult me. Unlike you... unlike you I have been raised to value things."

She was a picture of all that was wild and untamed. Her hair a mane of tangles, sap, blood dirt and sweat. Her face stained in the same manner with the addition of her salted tears and the two looming lanterns of her eyes filled with the unavoidable disgust at his behavior.

"Things?" He let out a breath, keeping an unsteady lid on the anger simmering just beneath his calm facade at her disobedience. "Like that foolish creature stupid enough to attempt at my life?"

"I am one of those creatures!" Her shout was no longer Hinata, not any Hinata he had ever seen before. Emotion was threatening to overwhelm her and for a moment she thought her hand might rise to strike him. Instead she dug her nails into the bark on the trunk of the tree on which he leaned so casually after having nearly cost her her life, after having cost the horkney it's life, after having his chest slashed to ribbons when humility and stealth would have likely avoided all these things.

"I bleed the same red blood, I starve as they do, and I also tried for your life! This could have been avoided if you just -" she paused, watching a snarl start on his mouth, words ugly and brutal were going to come out of him and before he could say them she wiped at her lashes, her fingers coming away soaked in the salt of her pain and sorrow she shoved the liquid between his lips.

Crying freely now she pulled away, falling back onto the ground with her knees collapsed beneath her easily at his surprised shove, shoulders hunched and head bowed against the weariness eating at her bones.

Homesickness pulsed inside of her. Homesickness for her sister's wild laugh, for her cousin's loving yet stern smile, for a Clan of familiar pale eyes who valued life, who fought the encroaching death every moment of every day, daring to hope that they would be able to survive it. Perhaps it was foolish to think that he, so obviously raised to think of the Veil as finite would understand the love she had for her world by the simple touch of her tears on his tongue. Sniffing weakly she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to quell the image of the horkney's bewildered destroyed mouth.

"What do my tears taste like?"

She waited for a very long time, expecting a scathing snap. Perhaps, she even anticipated a brutal blow for her rebellion.

When nothing happened and she finally looked up his hand was there to grip her chin, careful and firm although not painful. Before she could protest his silver bloody fingers were between her lips, spreading the herbed taste of his life blood on her tongue before withdrawing, dark eyes fixed elsewhere.

It burned in a way she had not expected as she swallowed, like spirits or the fermented healing brews of her home. It only took moments for the feel of energy and life to start to flutter through her body with each of her heart beats, like the pulse was ushering the energy along with each pump. At her hand where the only wound she had sustained throbbed an itch that built with heat tickled where her skin was beginning to tighten and resow itself together.

He gathered himself to his feet, with ease and grace that was more familiar than the stumbling dizziness he had displayed before. Unable to meet his gaze Hinata stared at the ground, listening to him moving away.

"There will be scavengers after the corpse." He snapped then, not half as forceful as she had anticipated. "We must move away before they find it."

Slowly, still adjusting to the burning of his blood swimming through her body she started after him, for a moment puzzled when his footsteps were non existent and nearly impossible to hear.

Looking up from wiping the blood off her palm she started in surprise at the realization that he was watching his footsteps, walking with care.

"Move." His order was growled, and Hinata jumped after him.

Ahead of her Sasuke stormed , the swirling hurricane in his head throbbing with his rapid heart beat.

On his tongue her compassion and sorrow mingled, complicated flavors of darkness and spice, chocolate and chili pepper, burning within his bones in a way her sorrow and loneliness, homesickness and worry had not the last time he had tasted her weeping.

One glance back had his dark eyes meeting hers, and at least he was glad to see the confusion fluttering on her face as clearly as it lingered within his own mind.

* * *

To say they were tired would be an understatement.

Hands on knees, backs bent and lungs aching they surveyed their passage one more time, eyeing the wild of the mountain wood with the same expression one gives a viper.

Around them the trees whispered and creaked, and Tenten found herself snapping her head from right to left as shapes of fallen logs and dilapidated branches covered in lichen and moss took on the appearance of beasts until she looked at them head on. The sensation of being watched had not left them since passing over the crest of the mountain top, and if Neji had not been the one keeping them on course likely as not they would have been lost, always walking too fast, always looking around getting confused in the impenetrable forest.

"We should be approaching the site." Neji whispered, straightening. Like the others the sweat was gliding down the smooth trail of his spine, his hair swept back from his face still glistened with the strain of their pace. Hinata and the star had many days head start and with the wings the creature possessed they were at a disadvantage none of them believed they would be able to make up.

That didn't stop them from pushing themselves until their hearts complained within their chests and their lungs burned.

"Warren, let my sister and I approach in our shadows, so as to ascertain the safety of the site." Lee was already throwing his pack onto the ground, certain that his Lord and friend would be on the same train of thought as himself. "This seems like a safe area to make camp for the night." Lee eyed the trees, thick as houses, branches sturdy and wide high above the forest ground. Nodding Neji watched him, glancing briefly at Tenten out of the corner of his eye.

His gaze had never set on her straight since their departure, his pale eyes always shifting through the woodland landing on her like a butterfly uncertain of it's perch.

Tenten had spoken half a dozen words in the many days they had been travelling, trying to let go of the choking feeling in her throat every time he looked past her like she was a ghost.

"We shall set up a perimeter." Kiba added then, glancing at Shino. The silent young man peered over his high necked cowl at them, brown eyes flicking between Tenten and Neji so fast that no one noticed but Tenten herself, now so aware of anyone's lingering gaze on her face.

Flushing she turned and threw her pack on the ground with surprising force, earning a few looks from her companions. Silence was the best defense they had in the woodland, travel through the trees like the floating specks of dust through light was their only guarantee of survival.

If the others had not noticed her mood before they certainly had now. Kiba's glance was only a second too long before he turned and digging around in the long length of fabric tied expertly like a hammock on his back retrieved a snowy white pup with ears too large for his face and eyes shut in sleep.

The hounds of Kiba's tribe were trained for the tracking of predators around the Valley edges. Their expert noses could sniff out the scent of poison, fang, fur and claw and the older best trained of them all would sit or tilt their heads to communicate what type of creature lurked around the edges of their village and fields.

Akamaru was too young for Kiba to leave behind, but not quite old enough to be entirely trusted to sniff out a perimeter of safety and so Kiba lowered him to the ground with a pat on his blazing white head.

"Come now, cottonfluff." He murmured. "Get that nose practicing." Despite the extra weight no one had thought to insinuate that Kiba leave the creature behind. Like a spirit the hounds bonded with their masters until their hearts seemed to beat as one. To leave Akamaru behind could have meant to kill him. It was not unusual for a hound to refuse food and drink from anyone but the master they were cleaved to.

Together the two young men disappeared through the thick foliage and after a moment the pup yawned, exposing incisors that would one day grow well past his lips before trotting after them, a snowball in a sea of teal and green moss.

Once they departed Tenten turned to Lee who waited for her beside Neji, his smile pained.

There was never anything she could hide from her brother. They were a key and a lock, a seed and the soil, two parts of a thing always together.

"The star landed two miles south." Neji murmured, speaking to Lee although Tenten made their group a triangle as they stood together. "It's in a copse of scarlet pines, but you'll be able to make it out quickly regardless. It destroyed the wood, and seared the sand turning it to glass on impact."

Lee looked steadily on at his friend, listening carefully.

"There were black feathers." Neji added after a breath, looking at his feet. "Trailing away from the site, sharp as the glass all over the crater. I'm hoping the sharpness of their edges kept anything from touching them and left a path to follow."

"Akamaru might be able to follow the scent, although it's going to be weak after so many days." Lee admitted, and his feet pushed on the moss beneath his shoes. Soft and springy it pushed back slightly. "It may have rained also..."

"The chances of being able to follow were low." Neji felt his stomach writhe within him, the barley cakes they had shared to break fast earlier at dawn unsettled. "My uncle suspected as much otherwise..."

"Otherwise he would never have mentioned a thing like the Scaled Worm." Tenten sighed. For the first time in days Neji raised his pale gaze to her, his stare was penetrating.

"If it comes to that I will be sending at least two of you back to the village."

Tenten's smile was wry, lacking surprise.

"Let us cross that bridge when we come to it." Lee soothed, stretching his palm flat before Neji. Nodding Neji waited until Tenten too raised her palm and without so much as a flinch he pulled a knife from the small of his back, twirling it expertly before slicing his palm. Holding his fist over first Lee's then Tenten's hand he watched the crimson drops collect at the basin of their palms.

"Two miles is not so far, and you should not need to cross through the shadows." He whispered, withdrawing his bloody hand away.

"We will be back shortly." Lee nodded, lowering himself carefully to the moss to sit on his knees. Beside him Tenten followed suit and they closed their eyes.

"For our glory." Neji whispered.

Together the siblings replied. "And for those of the Hawk Eyed Blood."

In the living breathing silence of the forest their shadows splayed behind them suddenly stood, pulling hard at first from their sides until they were free, untangling themselves from the limbs that bound them.

Lacking the solidity of their usual shape Lee and Tenten's souls stood back, surveying their still bodies holding the blood of the Hawk Eyed, allowing his magic to to pulse through their beings, giving freedom to their souls.

"If anything seems amiss, return. Do not engage." Neji wasn't looking at the shades that watched him so intently, but at the still form of Tenten sitting at his feet, her face relaxed, her breath so soft it was hard to see it at all.

With a nod the shadows dashed through the wood south, following the directions he had just handed to them, silent and hardly visible they would make good time.

Wrapping the wound on his palm idly with a long thick strip of cotton Neji settled before the two siblings, the long hunting knife that was his preferred weapon sitting unsheathed beside him on the moss. Without their souls within their bodies they were completely at the mercy of the wildness around them, but no matter.

He would sooner die than allow anything to harm them on his watch.

* * *

"No."

She frowned, openly frowned and sucking on her bottom lip fixed him with a look that seemed torn. He could see the battle within her mind, disobeying him was tempting because for whatever reason she wanted to scale the rock wall for the fungi growing along the slimy slate wet with the water seeping from it's invisible pores.

At the same time she had an affinity for doing what she was told, succumbing to authority figures was a habit and it made her uncomfortable to disagree. Especially considering his silence the last few days.

Not uncomfortable enough, however.

"I'm... I'm going to climb it."

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, letting out a sigh as she waited for him to change his mind.

"It's a mushroom." He stated thinly, glancing up the forty foot high vertical dark gray slate. With her powerful eyes she had caught sight of the pearly white caps of the fungi on a ledge as wide as his hand and moss decked. They were the only white thing besides her own gaze anywhere in sight but still, he was impressed. No bigger than his thumb the dozen or so mushrooms sat innocently on their perch, certain of their hiding spot.

"Those are Doula's Love fungi." Hinata murmured, her soft voice a tad impatient. She lifted her pale gaze heavenwards, letting the weakness of the sun filtering through the leafy canopy paint her in shadows and light that flickered as the breeze shifted the world above the tree tops.

"My mother was the last to find them- they are extremely rare. Before my mother, it had been three generations since anyone had seen them." She focused her gaze on him. "They ease child birth and almost guarantee the survival of both child and mother, I can't _not_ pick them... They will dry quickly." This last bit was added almost as an after thought, her steps assured as she moved towards the wall.

Sasuke clenched his jaw and kept himself from grabbing her arm and dragging her back forcefully.

"The fate of laboring mothers is not my concern."

"Yes..." Hinata agreed, already ten feet up on the wall, her fingers quickly finding holds, her feet searching for perches blindly. "...I understand you're supposed to...well... " she paused, digging her already dirty hands into moss to grip the stone. "...destroy everything, but..." she heaved, using all her core strength to pull herself up along the slick incline. "...just because it's going to all end does not mean that a mother and child should have to suffer through birth. In case a babe decides to be born before you finish your task." Awkwardly now she hugged the wall, eyeing the next possible inch of grip above her with distrust.

He couldn't help it. It was impossible not to be amused (and irritated) by her determination, or her just barely audible annoyance. It would have taken him about two seconds to fly up that high, to grab the mushrooms and get back down but to see her climb kept him from opening his mouth to say so.

Instead he stepped back, interested by the concentrated expression beneath the dirt smears on her skin. Holding herself tightly to the rock, with her knees pressed in hard and her fingers straining she eyed a foot wide ledge to her right, calculating.

Something happened in his chest that he did not expect as he realized what she was planning to do. Already thirty feet up the dark gray wall the fall would surely kill her, and for a breath every muscle in his body tensed with hers as she came to terms with her plan, her jaw setting, her eyes narrowing. After a moment she took a sip of air... and then she jumped.

Four feet sideways, with nothing but her legs and arms to use as leverage against the vertical wall she pushed and fell a foot, two feet and slammed hard with her knees on the ledge, grabbing desperately at the wall with her fingers to keep her momentum from sending her careening down to her death.

Sasuke's wince was minuscule and it took some effort to keep the oxygen in his lungs from escaping in a loud breath from between his lips when she finally straightened and began to climb again.

With an effort to sound immensely disinterested and slightly irritated he muttered. "How is it you've managed to stay alive so long?"

Briefly Hinata focused on the climb, and the familiar welcomed burn of her muscles straining before replying.

"...it does take a lot of effort."

"Unnecessary effort."

Unsure if he meant her life was unnecessary or that she put herself in unnecessary risk she frowned, biting back a retort.

The mushrooms were now only just out of reach, and Hinata paused, breathless on a comfortable perch, her legs trembling just the smallest bit as her forearms strained with her weight. For a moment she wished desperately for the dust her family wore in bags on their hips when climbing for the harder to reach medicinal plants used in their healing brews. It absorbed the sweat of her hands and slime of slick walls, gave them a better grip, and therefore improved their chances of surviving dangerous climbs by a fraction.

Although, in reality none of them would have taken on a forty foot climb without ropes and several watchful eyes. Warily now Hinata shot a glance over her shoulder, scanning the woodland for threats although the only thing to note was Sasuke standing with his arms crossed and his face well past annoyed to simmering fury.

 _I have to hurry._

Turning back to the wall she stopped suddenly surprised when the trees shifted in the breeze, and now high enough to see past a large portion of their gold, orange and red swaying branches caught a glimpse of an unnatural row of trunks tightly packed together. Another turn of the breeze shifted the leaves sideways again and the structure made more sense.

A wall, fortified.

"There must be a village." She breathed.

In her surprise at her finding she hardly noticed his question. "Are you stuck?"

"No...there's... a village, or something, there's something there." She pointed, nearly lost her grip with her other hand and scrambled to grab hold again with several deep breaths to calm her nerves.

Sasuke flinched down below, but kept his voice calm.

"I am losing my patience."

"Sorry... I'm sorry, I'm coming down." She mustered, stretching her fingers up, up and up until they gripped the soft feathery smoothness of the mushrooms and grinning despite herself she ripped out the first stem and all. It took a minute to gather as much as she could into the little baggy she had made of her sleeve for carrying the loomloom nuts from weeks ago and when the fabric was stuffed and carefully tied she shoved it into her tunic and began the more simple climb down.

Landing on the ground she dug the packet of mushrooms out of her clothing and beneath the grime on her face she flushed, her smile small but potent. "There were so many."

"And not a laboring mother in sight." Sasuke's tone was flat and unimpressed as he started off rather quickly in the direction she had pointed from above. "You said you saw something?"

"A village- or something similar, they have walls, made of wood." Hinata ran to keep up, holding the pack of mushrooms to her chest tightly. "Maybe they could use the Doula's Love." Eyes widening she looked up at his broad bare back, scrambling more quickly to come up, hovering near his elbow.

"P..perhaps they have an apothecary... perhaps I could trade in the fungi for some supplies?"

His silence was not exactly encouraging and swallowing the knot in her throat Hinata eyed the thinning trees, her gaze sharpening in the distance to see the unnaturally lined trunks of what was obviously a wall, at last two stories high, and built of sturdy iron trees, the tops sharpened to points like arrows to the sky.

For a moment she forgot what they were talking about, slowing to a stop beside him where he peered through the bracken of the forest outskirts only meters from the the cleared land before the wall. It's gate was clearly bolted from the inside, able to be shut at a moments notice by the release of what looked like chains.

"This was not supposed to be here." Sasuke whispered, and the tone in which he spoke made her realize he was speaking to himself. Carefully Hinata studied the side of his face, the frown furrowing his brow, the set of his jaw. At least this was distracting him from being annoyed with her for disobeying.

"It looks sprawling." Hinata observed, her eyes scanning what she could see through the trees. The darkness of the iron oaks shone against the soft creams and whites of the thinner red leafed trees they stood in. They either had a grove of iron trees before and killed it to make their walls, or they imported the materials.

The likelihood of the second option seemed so low Hinata started looking around for the stumps of the iron wood they had slaughtered for the sake of their protection around their feet and with her sharp eyes found it quickly.

Covered in decomposing mulch sometimes, decaying and breaking down in bits of fraying fibrous dust in other places the stumps of the iron woods littered the forest and suddenly explained the thin trunks of all the trees they now stood in.

"They're saplings." Hinata sighed, pressing a hand to the small trunk of the tree closest to her, smoothing it down the coarse bark. "Iron wood takes so long to grow... I don't think I've ever seen a sapling." She squinted at the red leafy canopy, blinking. "They must have planted so many to make up for the wall."

"None of the maps I studied ever had a village here." Sasuke shifted uneasily.

Wincing Hinata bit her lip. "...if they have need of a wall, that means that..." she glanced back the way they had come without stopping since the incident with the horkney but to let her rest. She could still see the ribs of the creature protruding from beneath it's black coat in her mind. "They must have needed the wall to spend so much time and energy on it."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a gust of wind swept through, rustling everything with it's less than delicate touch. With a gasp Hinata slapped a hand over her mouth and nose, overwhelmed suddenly by the scent of decay and decomposing flesh that hit them both, sending a shiver down her spine.

Beside her Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously.

When the breeze finally let up and she could gasp in a breath that didn't hurt her nostrils Hinata winced through the lingering tang of sickness still wafting through the trees. "It's the Rot. It must be encroaching on them." Her eyes flickered back to the trees, to the lack of abundance within the foliage, how hard it had become to find edibles she recognized, how starved the creatures they passed seemed.

"They're trying to keep the beasts from taking their people." She sighed, lowering her shoulders with sadness. "...if my village did not have the mountains between us and the Rot then..." she paused, thinking about the trees that lined the outskirts of the valley flats, about how the ecosystem was a carefully balanced piece of art that would be decimated by the need for materials to bar out the creatures so far happy to stay within the borders of the woodlands during the summer, spring and well into the fall. It was only really in the winter that the beasts began to prowl their village looking for easier pickings than what could be found within the woods.

"We will have to go around." Sasuke muttered decisively, turning away as though to head back.

Hinata jumped looking back and forth between the walled village and his retreating back. "B-but, but I..." she stared at the fungi in her arms and took off after him, breathless.

"Wait... please... please let me go in there."

"If you don't want me to kill any innocent people you will not ask me that again."

Flinching from his unapologetic tone Hinata strayed back a step, swallowing the knot in her throat.

"I... I need some things, they may trade me for these mushrooms, everyone knows well what they are. I...I need..." she paused when he did, turning to look at her with the same resolute lack of patience as usual on his face.

"What?" He snapped as she stared back, surprised by his attention.

"I...c-clothes...would be good..." she waved at herself, at the tatters that was all that remained of her clothing, one sleeve completely missing, the bottom of her tunic torn and frayed, her leggings shredded in more places than one.

When he did not respond, just studied her silently she held her breath, blinking hard at him as heat roasted her ears. "Please." Carefully she kept her thoughts about finding a weapon within the village to herself. Even just a hunting knife, something...

Turning away stubbornly he continued to walk and she let her head drop, staring at the mushrooms in her arms wondering how she could leave them for the village to use without instructing anyone on what they were.

"I'll give you until dusk before I go in there to fetch you myself."

Startled Hinata looked back up, her heart hammering.

"If they have arrow heads and sinew for bowstring get that as well."

Mouth wide, eyes wider Hinata took a hesitant step back, towards the sound of humanity on the other side of the wooden barrier, away from him.

"...dusk...I...I'll be back by then."

"Arrowheads." He snapped, not bothering to look at her as he marched away back to the slate wall she had climbed.

Before he could change his mind Hinata clutched the mushrooms tighter to her chest and burst into a run to the promise of familiar lives.

* * *

Arriving at the site of the landing was easier than either of them had anticipated. The star had carved a path through the woods and slid, leaving a scar of several dozen feet into the roots, moss, dirt and rock, spraying out shattered glass that glimmered in the dying light of the suns. Surrounding the actual crater were the trees, swollen and snapped where the heat of such high friction had set the water within their fibers to boiling, cracking their trunks into splintered dying sticks.

That, however was not what had drawn them.

Insects, glowing in their bright blue, purple and aqua green shine fluttered and buzzed, beetles so shiny and reflective in their shells they looked like beautiful beads huddled together on random patches of the mossy floor.

Tiny round dragonmoths fluttered and pulsed with light, sifting through the lazy haze of dust that sparkled gold through the light that filtered from above the canopy of trees.

Taking on a shape more like a man Lee's shadow studied the strange sight of the huddled insects, glancing up when his sister's darkness crouched to study another patch of flustered buzzing insect life upon the ground.

Being what they were, needing no mouths or voices they looked at each other, passing thoughts and trading understanding not so much with words as with their feelings.

 _Uncertainty. Confusion. Curiosity._ Tenten cocked her shadowy head at Lee.

In turn he looked further out where more of the patches of brightly colored insect life seemed to teem in strange puddles more condensed where the shape of red pine jutted angry and yellow in it's cracked trunk, the tree seeming to have split from the inside.

 _Wariness. Worry._

Looking at his sister's dark shape the Lee shadow pulsed with feeling.

 _Affection._

Her returning feeling was soothing.

 _Love._

Together they flashed through the shadows of the forest, skipping over the pooled colorful insects, passing through the fluttering buzz of many beating mechanical sounding wings until they came to the crash site, a smear of brown in a mossy landscape, a crater round and deep and glittering.

And everywhere the insects hissed and sputtered, moving along the discarded shapes of many black feathers. Further past the decimated moss and forest of it's landing the insects continued towards the darkness of the wood, visible through the spotlights of sun that slid butter yellow past the shadowy trees. With the dragonmoths soft edged neon glow the trail was clear.

Looking at each other quickly Tenten and Lee pulsed the same emotion at the same time.

 _Relief._

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	5. For You

_**This story is relentless in its desire to be written, but also very difficult to write. I am wrestling with a lot and I can already see there may be issues I have to fix. If you do notice them, please let me know as I can't see the forest for the trees.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **inky**_

* * *

"You know, just because you smile like that at me doesn't mean I don't know you think I'm ugly." Ino's voice was soft and deadly and Sai felt his insides swirl around inside like his paint brush over canvas. That was an interesting feeling, he perused it within his mind, turning it one way then the other curiously, picking it apart.

"Shall I frown then? Would that be more acceptable?"

"No, frowning would not help." Ino's blue eyes flashed and he wondered how one might be able to capture that flash in a painting. Not that he would have an opportunity to do so. Of all the colors difficult to find in the wild blue was the one most prized and therefore the one least likely to be within his reach, economically speaking. He could get away with blacks, browns, even reds easily enough as those he could make himself. Yellow he was able to buy off the apothecary's apprentice, mashed from the lemon scented flowers that grew in the grasses of the fields.

Although, even that might become less likely if he couldn't get a handle on how to treat Ino right, being the aforementioned apprentice, she was finding delivering his paints tiresome.

"Will you two, _please_?" Shikamaru shouted from the tower on the other side of the stretch of gate. Sprawled on a bench with his feet up on the watch window he hardly looked like he was working. "I mean, if any of the nomads decide to try to take the gate we won't hear until they're practically on us with your blabbering."

Ino thrust the packet of paint at Sai. "I doubt they would find your sleeping mass a hindrance to their plans, Shika. Look at you, you're hardly on duty. Shall I mention this to my Master?"

"Tsunade knows I do my job." Shikamaru retorted thinly.

"Right, because with your head on that bench you'll see the nomads coming a mile away, right?"

"Excuse me." Sai called, trying to barge into the conversation. Ino raised a hand to silence him, waiting for Shikamaru's snarky reply.

Sighing the young man tightened his arms around his head for a moment, like that would block out her healthy and overly enthusiastic voice.

"It's the middle of the day." Shikamaru finally explained. "If they're going to attack it's going to be at shift change, or at dusk because that's when we have low visibility and the predators who would hunt them will not be prowling quite yet."

"Right, so that gives you the chance to have a nap on shift?" Ino continued. Beside her Sai glanced over the gate and back at them.

"Shikamaru...Ino...I really think-"

"Sai, wait." Ino snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "Shika, sit up. I don't want to have to tell Master Tsunade that you-"

"Hello?"

This fourth voice was surprising because it was neither Sai, nor Ino, nor Shikamaru. Small, and although clearly attempting to shout it was feather light and a little wary.

Shikamaru and Ino froze, looking warily at each other and Sai let out a long breath. "I was trying to tell you. There's someone at the gate."

There was a flurry of limbs moving and then all three faces were peering between the pointed tops of the iron tree tops, down several dozen feet to the girl who stood on the patch of clear land before their entrance.

"She's filthy." Sai commented, and Ino slammed an elbow into his rib hard.

More proffesionally Shikamaru squinted at the girl through the brightness of the trees, trying to make out her face.

"Hello." He began, uncertainly. "What do you need?"

"I...I was hoping that your village might have an apothacary or a healer." Her tight shoulders shifted, and her eyes flashed over the fortification, catching Ino and Sai's faces and flicking back to Shikamaru. "I have...I'm hoping that I could perhaps trade."

"Shikamaru, let her in." Ino whispered, already turning to run down the stairs to the dirt below where the gate would fling open. On the bottom floor of the opposite tower sat Chouji, a mountain more than man, half asleep himself with his battle axe leaning casually on his shoulder.

"I don't know about this." Shikamaru muttered, shaking his head at her from the porch above. "What if she's with the nomads? What if she's a decoy? I won't open the main gate. You need to ask Tsunade about this."

Ino frowned, about to snap at him to open the door for the poor girl to get through when a voice asked behind her. "Ask me what?"

Beaming, Ino turned to find her tall blonde master behind her, looking curiously from Shikamaru to Ino and back. "There's a girl, on the other side of the gate seeking entry." Ino explained. "She says she wants to trade, with the healer of the village."

"She didn't know your name," Shikamaru put in. This was telling because if there were sentient beings anywhere near the village they knew Lady Tsunade's name. It was exchangeable with the word medicine.

"Trade?" Tsunade leaned a hand on her hip, frowning at the darkness of the gate before her, keeping her from the stranger on the other side. Without a word she was climbing up the stairs to the viewing deck, followed closely by an excited Ino. "She looks like she's been out there for a while, she's in rags." Ino began explaining quickly. "Do you think she's alone?"

"Doubtful." Sai mumbled, squinting at the girl still. "She's so small, a horkney would make one bite out of her."

Standing beside him now Tsunade frowned, studying the little creature on their door step hugging a filthy bundle of fabric in her arms.

"Stranger!" Tsunade called, and the girl snapped her eyes to the source of the sound like a magnet. In the brightness of the sun the paleness of her gaze shone from her dirty face, framed by the tangles of black hair. Stunned to silence Tsunade stared for a moment.

"...Hawk Eyed..." she whispered, then snapping out of her reverie she cleared her throat. "What have you to trade?"

"I...I bring Doula's Love, from the forest." Hinata lifted her bundle, unwrapping it so the fungi flashed white and brilliant like pearls in the midday sun. "I do not wish for much... I... I need clothes...perhaps a satchel. Oh...um...arrow heads." she added, glancing over her shoulder distractedly.

"She's not alone." Shikamaru muttered, eyeing the woods carefully. "I'm sure of it, how could she have survived on her own?"

"She's barely survived, look at her." Ino snapped back. "Maybe she has someone else but I doubt she's part of a large band and she looks nothing like the nomads."

"She's not a nomad." Tsunade muttered firmly, starting back down hurriedly. "Open the gate, Shikamaru."

"But...Lady Tsunade..."

"Do it now. Even if she had nomads hiding in those woods those mushrooms are worth a fight. Do it."

Grumbling to himself about females Shikamaru nodded at Chouji who lumbered from within the tower to the metal wheel tightly wound with chains. With a heaving grunt the giant of a man pulled a tightly cinched lever and soon enough the mechanical whine of a machine pulling the chains hard began, followed by the creaking lift of hundreds of pounds of iron tree lifting at once.

Jumping down from the porch above Sai landed nimbly beside Ino and Tsunade, hands lingering at his sides where a series of deadly looking knives hung. "What a strange dirty little creature." He murmured as Hinata's shredded leggings and then tattered tunic came into view, leaving for last the stained anxious looking face that topped it all.

"I would tell you to mind your tongue if it's got nothing to say that is pleasant, Sai." Tsunade grumbled mildly. "But I'm afraid you would end up mute."

"Mute might be fine." Ino muttered even as Sai flashed her another unnaturally wide grin.

"Hello," Tsunade called, just as the girl came into focus. Despite everyone's tense shoulders and searching eyes nothing came sprinting out of the woods towards them, and the girl remained standing where she was, shoulders tight, eyeing them all carefully.

"May I see what you've brought us?" Tsunade asked gently, noticing suddenly the skittish twitch of the girl's fingers, her almost uncontrollable glance backwards every few seconds behind her.

"...Y..yes. I'm sorry, here." She moved forward rapidly then, as though she had finally made a decision, extending the bundle forward like a swaddled babe.

"Oh." Ino sighed as Tsunade took the offering. "They're so bright."

"...Doula's Love." Tsunade nodded, toying with the delicate cap on the fungi carefully. "I've only seen them once before." She glanced up at the girl again then, focused on her unusual gaze.

"So..." She sighed deeply, taking in the state of girl's blood stained tunic, the torn clothing and smears all over her. "When we saw what looked like a falling star in the sky I thought there might be a visit from a pair of Hawk Eyed hunters on the prowl, but I did not expect to see one lonely Valley girl in my woods." She handed the mushrooms to Ino absently.

"Has the Hawk Eyed Clan fallen to the Rot then? Or nomads?"

Flinching visibly the girl narrowed her eyes, just enough to show distaste and carefully, slowly she answered. "My clan continues." She swallowed. "Or at least...that is what I last knew to be true. I am...wandering." She paused.

"And your name?" Tsunade frowned. "Your people don't often wander. Were you exiled?"

Another flinch, this one very annoyed. "My people do not exile."

Something about the elegant cadence of her voice and the contrast of her tatters made Tsunade pause, studying her. "Hm."

"Are..." the girl continued, eyes flashing to Ino with the mushrooms. "Are you interested in trading or...?"

"Oh, I'll take them." Tsunade nodded. "But I cannot pay you for them."

Wary now, stranger glanced back to where the gate was just coming down behind her, locking her in. Like an animal suddenly finding herself caged all the muscles of her body tensed and she took a step back slightly.

"They are extremely expensive, very difficult to find. The most I can do is stock you heavily for your...wandering." Tsunade continued quickly, sensing the wariness in her guest's body. "We mean you no harm though. This is a blessing you have brought us. Please... you're safe."

"I don't want much." She replied slowly, eyeing the ax on Chouji's shoulder with obvious dislike. "Just...some food, some clothes...?"

"Come." Tsunade nodded, extending her hand. "Come with me, we will take care of you."

And as the blonde led her away Ino watched, her grin spreading as much as her infectious curiosity. "Wow!" She breathed. "A Hawk Eyed."

"She seems jumpy." Shikamaru muttered, not looking after the girl walking away but towards the woods where she came from. "I wonder what the Hell's Maw she's doing out here by herself. The Valley is a good month's walk from here."

"Master said the star would be hunted by the Hawk Eyed." Ino mused, cocking her head at the petite creature disappearing into town with Tsunade's arm over her shoulder. "Do you think she's one of the hunters?"

"If she is..." Sai stated plainly beside her. "...it didn't go well."

* * *

He watched it from deep within the trees, as the gate swung wide open like a gaping mouth inviting her in. Her glances back struck him with curiosity and he pondered what she was thinking. Was she perhaps nervous that he would burst into the village and destroy it? Was she wary that he might come after her, having changed his mind and drag her away under the eyes of these strangers?

A third strange possibility whispered in his mind and he squashed it with the same firmness he used to flatten a spider meandering by his feet. Could she be nervously looking for something familiar?

For him?

Once the gate closed he turned, heading towards the slate wall she had so nearly died on. In the sudden solitude and silence he listened to the shift of the world around him, breathing moving, always fidgeting.

With Hinata's steps behind him constantly distracting with her almost ghost like movements he had not noticed how very still this particular bit of wood was. The colors were as vibrant as ever but the life seemed less so. There were less calls of birds through the whispering foliage and the scampering pitter patter of tiny feet in the underbrush was less common.

This however made any predator with an eye for them more deadly. Hunger made bold those who would usually cower and the memory of the horkney was still too fresh in his mind to put aside. If she had not reacted with the speed she had the damage could have been severe, and although his blood could have put her pieces back together the time it would have taken he simply could not spare.

She needed something to defend herself with and it needed to be something that kept threats far enough away that he could be in reach before they were on her.

Absently he looked up at the sheer wall of slate that Hinata had found the fungi on and after studying it for a moment contemplated the use of his wings before scrapping the idea. If there were people watching from the village towers they would catch a glimpse of his wingspan and if they were at all clever put two and two together with the display he had made on his fall to the Veil.

Without bothering to allow himself too much time to contemplate he reached up, feeling the slick wet of the slate beneath his pale fingers. Mossy bits of growth that had rooted on the deeper edges. Forcefully trying not to think he began to climb, taking note of his breath and the strain on his muscles, wondering if she had felt fear at all, because despite all her shaking and tears... He was starting to doubt that she could.

With the effort it took to climb he was glad to have his thoughts distracted, focused on the movement of his body, the in and out pull of the oxygen laced heavily with the decaying smell of the Rot nearby. He had a feeling from the way it drifted that the dying stink that was spreading throughout the Veil had widened since the last maps from home had been made. Upon reaching the top of the tower of stone he let out a breath of dislike at being right.

On top of the cliff-like edge the world was a sea of shifting branches and leafy vegetation moving at the soft touch of the breeze. Only half hidden now by the foliage was the brown oddly shaped fence that housed the village. From his vantage point he could see the puffy gray streaks of smoke from chimneys and hear the bustling chatter of a lot of people and animals packed into a smaller space that necessary.

It had always puzzled him that the Veil spread so far and wide yet the people who lived upon it's face packed together like sheep, always compressing each other into smaller and smaller spaces.

With the light of the suns bright and shining he let his eyes rest on the scarred ground beyond the village, still some distance away and separated from it by a thick knot of vegetation attempting to stave off the obvious origin of the deadly perfume that lingered on the wind.

Even from so far he could see the occasional bubbling of the muddy earth, the tall thin grassy vegetation that seemed to sprout on it like wayward hairs yellow against the sludge brown and black gray of it's rolling uncertain surface.

It stretched as far as he could see, with perhaps several days length of forest jabbing into it like a knife on the right.

At the very end, just as his eyes were unable to fathom shapes was the outline of a mountain range with the tallest of peaks at it's center, tipped with the snowy white of an ice cap. Beneath that looming darkness was the Scaled Worm's domain.

Even flying he was unlikely to get there without needing to stop and rest or replenish his stores of energy. Especially not with his wings the way they were. Almost without thinking he turned his head to look at the limbs he had so carefully retracted into his body, a bit put off to not see them looming pristine white and all encompassing beside him on either side.

The razor sharpness of the black feathers had been rather useful more than once already but the weight was nearly unbearable and for a star so unaccustomed to withdrawing his wings and loping around on foot the change was almost humiliating. To fly with the obsidian wings had proved exhausting, and although it seemed she had not noticed, to fly with Hinata had practically nullified any of the tears he had consumed at their meeting. If he had had his normal feathers back the trip over the Rot would have been a thing of simplicity, a day's flight at most.

But, although he was consuming tears at a rate he had never heard of his wings remained stubbornly black, not even fading to gray despite the magic.

Irritably he turned from the direction of the dying landscape towards the wood they had just passed, eyeing the leafy canopy for something that might promise a bit of the osage wood for his project.

Osage was a wood he had only ever seen in pieces, already harvested. The branches had been removed, the planks had been mostly bark free. But like anything that might have touched on the subject of destroying his brother his tutors had taken it upon themselves to teach him well.

The drawings of the twisting octopus shaped timber had been detailed in it's shape, it's coloring and the giant double fisted fruit that grew on it's low lying curving branches well captured by their scribes. Almost black the hard outer shell of the osage orange cracked open to reveal a fruit not unlike tubers in it's density and crunch. But the fruit was useless to a star, especially one with tears in abundance.

What he wanted was the wood, the most appropriate for a bow fashioned rapidly in his expert hands.

 _"It seems rather a waste of time." Sasuke's small voice was on the verge of petulant and Itachi fixed him with a look. "Why would creating something of beauty and elegance be a waste of time? Explain this to me."_

 _"Because, archery is only ever used at festivals for competition not battle, because none of the war arts I am being forced to learn are ever going to be used, because I would much rather master something else. Something more...useful."_

 _"Useful." Itachi mused as he sanded down the osage carefully, looking for the least knotty pieces for Sasuke's first attempt at a bow. "How about, learning archery is useful because it teaches you perseverance, to maintain practice until you can draw the heavy bow string? How about it teaches you patience because to learn a new skill requires long suffering nights of work? How about it teachers appreciation because it requires you to see the wood for it's faults and it's blessings? How about-?"_

 _"All right." Sasuke snapped, grabbing the sand paper from his hands. "All right!"_

 _Smiling just a little his brother offered him a plank. "Just remember what you are doing. This thing is not just a bow for a competition. It is an art, that was created because once upon a time we hunted, we fought wars. It's more than just unnecessary."_

 _"Wars." Sasuke grumbled, sanding absently. "The last war in heaven was-"_

 _"A millennia ago." Itachi nodded. "And shouldn't you count that as one of the blessings poured upon you and your generation?"_

Jaw tight Sasuke scanned the shifting foliage of the trees surrounding him, trying to dispel the voice in his head that both twisted his soul with longing and hatred.

Determined to root the thoughts of his brother from his head he began the rapid climb back down, having caught the wide leafy shape that might mean an osage if he was lucky, some distance away. If he kept himself busy for the day, perhaps he wouldn't be left alone with his thoughts of the traitor in his mind, even if he was using one of the skills he had imparted with such care.

How strange it was, that the man who called him to count peace as a blessing helped in tearing it apart in the end.

* * *

They had watched her right until she disappeared into Lady Tsunade's bathing room, with eyes wide and faces carefully still in an effort to not be rude. Still, Hinata was fully aware the moment she looked in the tall spotty mirror that she looked like a nightmare.

"Oh...Veil." Sighing softly she studied her own reflection. She had felt the grime and mourned the hot springs of her valley every day since being ripped from her sister weeks ago, but looking at herself now she realized she had not grasped the scope of her descent into homelessness.

Her hair once a long curtain of ebony had tangled and with chunks of other people's blood in it had dried in patches. Her attempts to wipe her face of the horkney blood had only really smudged it and crusted bits still clung to spots along her hair line and jaw. Her tunic once white was largely brown where it was not dried stiff and roan red or smudged metallic bronze from Sasuke's blood.

Shaking her head at herself she stripped off the filthy rags, studying the bathing room nervously. It was small, with wood walls and cracked but pretty tile on the floor. A large tub carved of stone looking oddly out of place in the otherwise mundane space.

Everything about the village looked like it was borrowed and put together in patches, the mirror had silver gilding that looked faded with age, it's reflective surface spotted despite it's length. The tub had been filled with water steaming hot from pots boiled over smoky fires in a kitchen somewhere in the hodge podge of rooms pushed together that made up Tsunade's tipsy house. Near the city center it towered over the rest of the squat buildings within the expanse of the fort walls and Hinata had learned quickly that this was because she was the healer as well as the elected ruler.

The house was both a hospital and another look out for approaching nomads that seemed keen to invade the fortress for the supplies they hoarded.

Slipping into the water Hinata sighed deeply, grabbing a handful of a rough home made soap that sat by the tub, polka dotted with large seeds that upon closer inspection were herbs she recognized, sage, mint, and the tall lemon grass familiar from home.

She didn't have to be a genius to know that just outside of the bathroom door Tsunade, her apprentice Ino and the others who had seen her enter the village were probably huddled together discussing her at length. If she was lucky, they would hand over what she had hoped to get for the mushrooms and let her leave without insisting on knowing her name. For the sake of her Clan's honor she would keep the fact that their heiress had been enslaved as long as she could.

Glancing out the window at the afternoon light she turned back to her hair, floating in dirty clumps in the water and set to lathering her hands, ready to tackle all the filth of being in Sasuke's keeping before the sun went down.

Just down the hall from the door hiding the only Hawk Eyed girl within several hundred miles Ino peered, popping her head back to look at Tsunade with a nod. "I think she's likely busy by now."

"She's not alone, I'm certain of it. She can't stay here." Shikamaru put in directly, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. "I don't even like that she's in here now."

"She was starving, and filthy, Shika. She needed help." Ino frowned, glancing at Tsunade. "What could she possibly do against all of us and just one of her."

Tsunade looked back at them, moving around the small kitchen to gather the things she needed for what looked like tea, although while she poured from a teapot for them, in the end she pulled a sealed bottle from a cupboard above her head and cracking the wax filled her cup with the strong fermented liquid instead.

"Well she's here, and she's getting what she's asked for. I'm not taking those mushrooms without paying her with what I can. Then she can..." Tsunade paused, considering. Sending the girl out into the wild seemed like a death sentence. Her expression at the suggestion of being an exile had been so insulted that Tsunade almost felt embarrassed to entertain such an idea as sending her into the forest before night fall and yet...

"Well, you've heard my opinion on the matter." Shikamaru shrugged with eyes closed. "I know she has someone in the woods waiting for her, I know it in my bones. She kept looking back. If she stays the night, she could open the gate, or let them in some other way."

"She's not a nomad though." Ino fretted, thinking about the blood staining her tunic, about the long matted hair and the cautious wary look on her face. "Surely we can house her for one night? Maybe if we lock her in?"

"Yes, I'm sure that she would be happy to be imprisoned by strangers for the night." Shikamaru nodded sagely.

"Better than being out in those woods alone." Ino snapped, fixing him with a look. "That was blood all over her clothing."

"Not hers however." Tsunade suddenly stated, sliding their tea cups towards them at the table Ino sat in. "She's in...perfect condition, in fact. Considering."

"Is she?" Ino's eyes couldn't get any bigger. "But... she looked like she had been out there for..."

"Too long." Shikamaru supplied. "Too long to be in the condition she's in and not have help. She has to go, Tsunade."

The blonde nodded. "All right... I... we can discuss it with her when she comes out. After she's been fed."

Sudden as a ghost a voice whispered. "...there is food?"

Ino jumped so high her tea cup spilled and gasping she scrambled to her feet, glancing where Tsunade and Shikamaru were looking at the hallway. Hinata stood there, expression cautious in the tunic and leggings that Tsunade had offered her. Decked in black and brown with a scarf wrapped several times around her neck the girl that looked back at them was a different creature from the feral being that had stared at them on the other side of their gate.

Nervously Hinata shifted the darkness of her bangs, freshly cut. "I...I hope it is okay that I used the scissors in the bathroom."

"Of course. You look refreshed." Tsunade put in softly, pouring another cup of tea and pushing it towards her while Ino mopped up the mess she had made. "Would you like some stew? And we have bread, Ino just finished baking today."

"I...I...I do not eat...flesh." Hinata began uncertainly, adjusting the hem of her new tunic with long elegant fingers "And I cannot stay very long. I...I am looking for a few specific things." Sheepishly she fretted. "Arrowheads, sinew for a bow string...um...leather?"

"You're making a bow?" Shikamaru studied her with interest, glancing at her fingers, noting the lack of callouses on either hand.

For a moment Hinata stared at him, eyes wide in her face. Without much conviction she murmured. "Yes."

Smirking a little Shikamaru turned to Tsunade and Tsunade purposefully refused to look at him.

"Arrowheads, bow string. Anything else? That is hardly enough for the mushrooms."

"Um...some...some dried food, I... I cannot carry much but..." Feeling awkward Hinata looked at her boots. "Oh, um..a..man's shirt." Feeling their eyes on her Hinata pushed on. "Needle and thread perhaps? I... I am not sure, to be honest, I just hoped for some clean clothes, but if you're offering more..."

"Those are all do-able." Tsunade nodded at Ino. "Go upstairs please, and retrieve that roll of leather I've been saving, and the blue shirt from my closet."

Uncertainly Ino stared. "But...that's...Master Nawaki's-"

" _Go_ upstairs and gather a couple of the men's shirts from my closet, and the leather _please_." Tsunade's snap was brutal in it's force and before Ino had a moment to even think about disagreeing she was already down the hall.

Hinata jumped as the blonde ran past. "I...if it's an issue-"

"It's not. Shikamaru, please go to the armory and gather two dozen arrowheads, if they don't have them to spare then just gather a quiver and bring it to..." she paused, turning to Hinata. "I still don't know your name."

Hinata looked back, recalling only too clearly how badly her last lie had gone. "...I would rather not say."

Shaking his head Shikamaru moved to do as he was told before Tsunade decided to start using the same tone of voice on him that she had used on Ino.

Left suddenly alone Hinata looked awkwardly back at the healer. "I...I hope the Doula's will be of use to your village."

"Oh they will be. Plenty of mother's gestating." Tsunade straightened with a sigh, taking a long sip of whatever was in her tea cup. "Wouldn't your village also have use for them however?"

Hinata looked back at her, calculating nervously. "I'm sorry that I cannot disclose more about myself, I do realize strangers can make people...wary." Delicately she sipped from the tea cup, finding pleasure in the warmth that seeped through her bones at the flowery drought.

"I heard you all mention nomads." She added, and Tsunade smirked. "Yes, although we know you're not that."

"You have had trouble with other peoples?"

"There is a clan that seems to have decided to embrace the Rot." Tsunade sighed, rubbing at her forehead where a shining bead glinted like a third eye. "They cover themselves in the filth that bubbles from the decay, it taints them the color of dry blood." Swallowing another mouthful of the foul smelling spirits in her cup she grimaced. "They have been trying to get into the village since we put up the walls nearly ten years ago. You'd think they would give up but I suppose we have too much they want. Although it's hardly enough for us." she eyed Hinata then. "How do the Hawk Eyed fare with their angel bone superstition? Are you all starving yet?"

Hinata flinched, wondering what she would say about it being superstition if she could see Sasuke, and watch his blood seal her wounds and set her body to fire. Swallowing the instinct to defend her people she murmured. "We do what we can, as always."

"Vague." Tsunade allowed herself a smirk. "But I suppose we have our own wariness about you, you're entitled to your own."

"I'm sorry I cannot be more...transparent." Hinata bit her lip and just as they were sizing each other up again Ino appeared, bearing some folded cloth in her arms, one black as the night and smooth, unblemished cotton, the other a navy so dark it hardly looked different from the black, lined at the long sleeves and the neck with silver thread.

Hinata stared at them, aware that they were not just well kept, they had been well made and from some time ago, going by the dark blue.

To get a dye so dark one would have had to find the correct plants for it, and she had not seen them on her approach to the village with Sasuke. It would have been hard to miss the fields of blue sprouting bellflora so dark they were almost black.

"These...are..." Hinata hesitated as Ino handed them over. "It...they need not be so fine, it is only for-"

"It's all I currently have." Tsunade waved a hand. "And they are not needed, please."

Uncertain still Hinata accepted the offering, with a thick neatly rolled strip of leather beneath. "Thank you."

Ino smiled, her look curious. "Such pretty eyes... what did you say your name was?"

"Let's feed her." Tsunade put in quickly before Hinata's cheeks could redden with distress. "Ino, get the bread, and I'll start her on some of that squash soup."

"Yes, Master." Ino nodded, moving quickly. Hinata allowed herself a look of thanks at Tsunade which the blonde returned with a smile. Sighing she settled at the table, her pale eyes flickering to the suns through the window behind her, inching closer and closer to the horizon.

Strangely, although the smells of warming food and the feel of being clean were a great reprieve she kept looking over her shoulder, confused by the fear of being left behind.

* * *

"What...did this?"

Kiba scooped up Akamaru before the pup could wander towards the rotting corpse of a giant horkney. The creature had been dead for at least a couple of days going from the smell, and the bits of it's entrails tossed throughout the forest ground by whatever had taken it's fall with gusto.

"Not a predator." Lee stated firmly, walking around the skeletal figure, wincing away from the smell of the rot and the wriggling of many worms within it's remaining flesh. "The jaw is nearly completely torn away."

Tenten was standing well back from the mass, her stomach tight. It was one thing to slay a triple horned doe in the woodland of the Valley mountains where the men of the village skinned and butchered it so no part of it's body would go to waste. In that instance she had nothing to do with the body, just the slaying of the beast. She didn't have to smell it's rot, see it festered with worms, it's eye gauged and bloody.

"Feathers everywhere." Kiba put in softly, glancing at Neji who was studying the piles of luminous insects so interested in the feathers that were sprawled everywhere. It had been days since they had last seen sign of the star, and for a time Akamaru had seemed able to trace onlt Hinata's scent, or sometimes the smell of burnt wood from fires, moving from campsite to campsite long after the fires had cooled and died.

"Did it attack the star, perhaps?" Tenten threw in after getting a good handle on her roiling stomach.

"Or Hinata." Shino murmured suddenly, and group glanced warily at each other.

Only Neji remained silent, studying the creature and the waste of it's life on the ground.

"It was female." He muttered finally, eyeing the bits of it's stomach not torn to shreds by the scavengers that had taken the opportunity of so much sustenance. "Lactating."

"We need to move." Kiba put in, watching Akamaru in his arms turning his head sharply one way then the other, nose twitching. "Something approaches."

"I wouldn't be surprised. You can smell this a mile away." Lee winced as the putrid scent hit him again with the breeze.

"Let's go." Tenten stopped beside Neji who studied the creature's body with pale haunted eyes.

"If this got a hold of her..." he whispered, and Tenten shook her head. "Hanabi was at death's door and the star's blood brought her back." Gently she placed a hand at his elbow."She's all right, Neji. "

"...Akamaru found something." Kiba muttered, and the others turned to look at the pup struggle out of the young man's arms, scampering over the dry leafy carpet a spot where the feathers were the most dense. Sniffing at the ground the hound looked at Kiba, and promptly lay down.

Shino's hardly visible wince was all the movement in the clearing and because of it Neji's gaze flickered to him.

"What is he saying?" He finally forced himself to ask watching as Kiba gathered his pup in his hands and stood back, looking at where he had been sitting.

"Hinata's blood." Kiba's voice was dry. "Just... a bit, not much."

"Let's move." Lee put in sharply, watching the tension snapping across Neji's shoulders. "Let's go, we've been here too long, too close to such a strong attraction."

Wordlessly the others hurried forward after him, following the shimmering lights of the luminescent bugs gathering in fits and starts on the feathers discarded like petals in an uncertain shaky trail.

Tenten kept her hand on Neji's arm, lips pressed tightly together. "That means she fought... it means she is alive, just-"

Startled she gasped when his arms wrapped around her and he buried his face into the crook of her neck, holding on like there was a tidal wave upon them and she was the shore.

"...if we have to go to the Scaled Worm... I'm sending you back."

"You can't... I'm your shadow, where you go I go."

"I can't have you both out here."

Tenten breathed, feeling the heat of his hands on her hips and the softness of his hair across her cheek.

"Why is that?"

He did not answer, just pulled away, gripping her wrist hard as they walked deeper into the wild they did not know.

* * *

It was just as Luminatus set that Hinata turned to wave at the two blondes, stepping out of the glow of their fire torches and into the coming darkness of the woods.

"Are you sure?" Ino called, even as the gate began to lower. "Are you sure about going out there?"

Tsunade glanced at her apprentice, hands on her hips in disapproval but said nothing, waiting for Hinata's reply. Firmly the girl nodded. "I thank you..." Stepping back from their human familiar glow she gripped the straps of the pack on her back, gripping tightly. "Thank you very much."

Leaning over a little so she could still see her Tsunade smiled, a pained worried sort of half grin that made Hinata feel a blooming fondness for the blonde. "For our glory!"

Surprised Hinata jumped, and smiled back. "And for those of the Hawk Eyed Blood."

The darkness seemed strangely thick when the gate finally closed and their fires were cut off from her. Turning slowly back to the whispering trees she adjusted the thick wool scarf on her neck and began marching forwards despite all instincts telling her the darkness of the wood was exactly where she should not go.

Nervously she eyed the growing shadows, the stretch of branches seeming less and less familiar and more macabre. Like long fingered skeletons they swayed and danced against the steadily darkening heavens. Slowly, moving with the grace of the deer she hunted in the woodlands of her home she traipsed through the saplings, keen eyes searching for that familiar porcelain glow of Sasuke's skin.

Only a handful of steps into the shadows had her freezing, listening intently as the feeling of eyes on her raised the hair on the back of her neck.

Hand lingering at the small of her back where a hunting knife now sat snugly she waited, holding her breath.

"So you did come out willingly."

Her jump was involuntary and had her training been less ingrained she might have drawn and thrown the knife before she registered the voice.

Letting out a breath so heavy it fluttered her bangs she turned, frowning at him openly. "I said... I promised I would come back."

"Armed, I see." Sasuke nodded then at the knife she gripped still at her back. Arms crossed he studied her while leaning casually against one of the saplings. Clenching her jaw Hinata let go of the blade, raising her hands to show their unoffensive lack of weaponry.

"I...after the horkney...I can't not... I need something to-" she paused, swallowing her natural need to please with some concentrated effort. "I don't want to die out here, I need _something_."

His smirk was surprising and nervously she shifted, fiddling with the hem of her tunic again. "Please don't make me leave it here."

"No." He shook his head. "It would take more than a knife to take me down, _princess_." He pushed from the sapling, his dark eyes wandering over her as he approached, a small frown flickering on his face.

"You...appear different."

Standing very still, like she would in the face of a creature with entirely too many teeth Hinata stared determinedly at her boots, ignoring the heat turning her ears pink beneath her dark hair.

"I got the arrow heads and bow string." She mustered, keeping her voice even by sheer force of will.

"Hm."

"Are you building a bow, for hunting the Apostate?" It was a forward question and she would not have asked it any other day, but feeling quite a bit better fully clothed and with a full belly she dared a glance at his face. Finding interest there surprised her more than anything he could have said.

"No." His voice was nearly amused and abruptly he began to walk away, moving with the confidence that she would follow his steps.

After a moment Hinata did, frowning. "No?"

"How is your aim?"

The frown refused to shift from her forehead as she watched her step carefully, noting with more surprise that the silence of the wood was almost welcome after the tense bustle of the village.

"My...my aim..?" she twitched her hands in front of her with each step. The truth was she had perfect aim, the blood in her veins decreed sight as sharp as any bird of prey. Throwing knives and spears posed no problems to someone with eyes like her own.

Suddenly she paused, realizing what he was insinuating. "Oh...oh I'm...I am no archer, I..." she touched her arm lightly. "I am proficient with the throwing knives, the spear-"

"The glaive." He glanced back and Hinata winced, remembering too well their meeting.

"Yes."

"Metal is hard to come by." He turned. "You will have to make do."

Flabbergasted that he would have thought to arm her she followed until they reached the same slate wall that she had climbed earlier, beneath it's massive weight a little nook was carved into the darkness, a pile of timber signified that he intended them to spend the night there and Hinata shifted uneasily. "Is it not too close to the village? What if they tried to follow me?"

"I assumed you had the good sense not to mention who you were travelling with."

Stung, Hinata bit her cheek. "I did not even tell them my name."

"Well then, they should have no reason to come after you." He glanced up, just as he was kneeling to light the fire. "Unless you stole."

Finally finding the bite of her irritation rising to meet his onslaught of insults Hinata opened her mouth to snap at him, cheeks flushing in her humiliation. Before she could get a word out of her mouth she watched in terrified awe as he breathed in deeply and lips pursed to kiss a flame sprouted from his mouth, elegant and shimmering, casting his eyes to glow.

She had never seen him light the fire, had never wondered how it happened so rapidly, how a pile of wood he threw so carelessly could suddenly be ablaze when the villagers fretted and struggled with the wood they burned in the earth itself to bake the meat they were brought from hunts.

Shaking hard she stumbled back a step, hands raised against the blaze. "Y...you breathe fire- " Suddenly the concept of him being Firebound, aimed for the Maw of Hell seemed less an insult and more of a certainty. "How can you-?"

"I'm a fallen star." Sasuke lifted his eyes from the crackling heat, and in them the fire danced. "What did you think stars were made of?"

Swallowing the knot of fear in her throat Hinata stared back at him, slowly lowering herself down to the pine needle covered ground, hugging her pack to her chest.

"Fire is what killed my mother." Her eyes were unmoving from his face, seeing him and at the same time seeing the blaze that haunted her dreams.

Sasuke looked back at her, seeing more clearly in the light the soft contours of her face, the full mouth so pink and undisturbed by dirt or blood. Her eyes loomed, framed by the darkness of her hair suddenly smooth around her face and forehead. It was not so much terror in her face as the memory of it, and looking away he settled on the ground himself, pulling the crude shape of the bow from the darkness behind him.

"While you are with me, you need not fear it. I promise." Fingers deft he flipped one of his feathers in his fingers before focusing on the smooth osage before him, carving slowly in the dim light.

Shifting from the glare of the fire to him, Hinata blinked, clearing the memories from her mind's eye to look at him.

It seemed the right moment.

"I brought you clothes."

When he looked up there was surprise he could not hide and she studied him, like he had studied her outside of the village gates, like he was someone she had not met before.

Carefully she pulled the two tunics out of her pack, setting them down on top of the leather roll. "I...can modify the back, for your wings."

They sat in wordless silence after that, both busy with their projects, frowning not so much in concentration but in growing confusion.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	6. Craving

_**As per usual, this story has decided to use me and abuse me.**_

 _ **Much love to you all,**_

 _ **Thank you for all of your lovely reviews. You have no idea how much it helps. Also, telling me that you scan through stuff is totally fine because that makes me note what catches a readers interest versus what doesn't. I am still working on balancing plot with reader satisfaction.**_

 _ **It is a work in progress :)**_

 _ **Much much love!**_

 _ **Inky**_

 _ **PS. I was not a hundred percent satisfied with this chapter, as I found it...um...I'm not sure, perhaps the tone was different compared to other chapters? I may rewrite it, but that wont be until the whole thing is finished- and unlikely to change on here, because let's be honest, any editing i've done on finished fics has never seen the light of day. it just sits on my computer, taking up space and collecting dust.**_

* * *

Hinata's dubious sound of disappointment was followed by Sasuke's grunt of disapproval.

"I was under the impression that the Hawk Eyed were not named sarcastically, _princess_." Arms crossed over the dark blue tunic, he squinted just a bit at the poor pine tree in the distance, stabbed through with several arrows. None of them dead center. A handful were even on the ground, having not hit the designated tree at all.

Hinata flushed crimson, jaw tight as she lifted the bow again, straining against the string, breathing in deep to steady the shake of her arms. The bow had taken him the better part of three days to complete, using strips of left over leather from the quiver to wrap the handle, carving runes she did not understand in twisting beautiful curves over it's length, fletching the arrows with razor sharp ebony black feathers from his wings.

It was the most beautiful piece she had ever seen, easily outranking any of the bows from home, and to her utter despair it was in her hands. Never had she felt quite this inadequate, and considering her lack of proficiency at the art from of killing in a family of hunters the sting was hardly bearable.

"I..it's not my eyes." She finally defended. "I...I can see the target perfectly it's..." she sighed, releasing the arrow with a wince, feeling the slice of the fletching slice the heel of her palm as it flew, knocking her aim off by millimeters that resulted in the arrowhead piercing well off center.

"Ugh." She growled, lowering the bow. Shaking out her hand she frowned at the bloody palm, pressing it absently to her hip hard.

His approach made her glance up nervously, biting the inside of her cheek. The truth was that although her arm simply did not have the muscle for the draw of the string, more than anything his presence was making her insides twist and like having her father or elders watching, her hands trembled, her breath hitched, her aim suffered.

With his dark gaze on her at all times the likelihood of her improving was low, and the thought of disappointing and putting her family's renown name to shame left a metallic taste in her mouth.

"Draw." Sasuke instructed calmly, and Hinata twisted her mouth slightly in response, taking an arrow from her shoulder and notching it. Letting out a breath she pulled, jaw clenching as she strained.

"Hm." Carefully, his gaze swept over her form. From her stance, which was perfect to her pull. Touching lightly on her elbow he frowned, arranging it lower.

"Here." With his fingers just above hers on the bow and string he stepped behind her, feeling the tickle of her hair against his neck as he focused on the target. It was much further than he could ever hope to see properly, but for her it was not going to be the aiming clearly that was difficult, it was going to be the pulling.

With his combined strength behind the string Hinata let out a breath, feeling the sudden slack in her grip while she focused, aiming carefully.

"Breathe in." Sasuke murmured, his voice a whisper at the curve of her ear.

Uncertain, and now scared of shaking with the heat of his body right at her back Hinata drew in a breath and held.

"Release."

Together, they let go and breathed out, Hinata's shoulders drawing in at the feel of his warm breath on the nape of her neck. In the distance the arrow stuck, deeper than it had with any of her own attempts and as she had anticipated, dead center.

Sasuke stepped back, cocking his head at the result so far away. "I stand corrected."

"I am not strong enough yet." Hinata lamented, smoothing her fingers over the bow's beautiful smoothness. "But... I will be."

Sasuke's gaze flickered back to her then, masterfully placid and impossible to read. "You will have to improve rapidly."

"Yes." Nodding, Hinata pulled once more, straining without the help of his strength, brow furrowed. Archery was a practice most common to the shadows of Hawk Eyed heirs, a weapon meant to protect their Lord or Lady at long range. Or to bring down game that the one they were cleaved to would dispatch at close range with a hunting knife. To take the life of a creature was done with honor for it's sacrifice and therefore not from a distance. Although she had been taught the skill basics it had never been intended as a weapon of her future.

Watching this Sasuke started through the pines, eyeing their enormous heights with awe he still couldn't shake. The stench of the rot was at least bearable within the thickness of the forest that lined the encroaching path of decay, but even with the barrier of trees and living things the wind still knocked it towards them from time to time. Always it stung the eyes and overwhelmed the nostrils.

Hinata drew one more time, frowning as her muscles flexed and sighing released the pull, throwing her pack onto her back along with her quiver.

The stop had only been for her sake. It had been four days of hard pushing through the woods, where more and more of the foliage seemed determined to keep it's vitality to itself. He had noted the rations she carefully munched on from her pack, knew that there would not be enough for the long journey ahead. Still, she did not complain, and as they picked up the pace with her gathering wayward arrows he suddenly spoke.

"In about a week the forest will thin, and we will have to enter the Rot."

Hinata's gaze didn't waver, she had known his direction for some time, and had figured out that a long miserable march through the wasteland was inevitable. Sighing quietly behind him she nodded. "I...I know."

"I will sustain you on my blood." His gaze drifted back and Hinata kept her face still, despite the sharp and painful tightening of her heart. She had heard of species that lived off each other, always supplying what the other needed, capable of enduring long boughts of starvation and calamity before succumbing. The concept of being one of those creatures made her quiver inside.

All of those relationships were between things that chose each other as mates, always together. Having never so much as touched a male that wasn't her shadow or a family member Hinata fiddled with the edge of her tunic, thinking about the last time he had slid the blood between her lips.

The feel of his fingers delicate against the moist wet of her tongue flashed through her mind and swallowing hard she squeezed her fists tightly.

"I may find...I may be able to-"

"The Scaled Worm should not be taken lightly." Sasuke cut in quickly, feeling more than seeing her mind disagreeing. "In fact, " he stopped and gripped her wrist, nodding at her hand raised where several wounds from the arrow fletching had scabbed thinly. "This can cost you your limb where we are going, or do you not know what the Rot is like?"

Hinata stared at the wounds, brow furrowed and her stomach twisting inside of herself with nerves. She had worried vaguely about the possibility of infection. There was no rebuttal to that statement. Purposefully she had kept questions about her survival on the wasteland at bay.

"I...I understand, I just.." she fidgeted, watching as he let go, only to encircle her waist with his arm. Startled Hinata tensed, shoulders tightening at the feel of him drawing the hunting knife from the small of her back. Without warning he slid the blade along his hand.

Silver, bright and shining pooled at the basin of his palm. Hinata stared at it, aware of her lips parting slightly.

"...the ...the edge of the wood is still so far..." she whispered, forcing her gaze from the shining puddle he held before her face to his eyes. "I...I don't-"

"Shall I waste it then?" He looked back, face impassive and Hinata lowered her eyes to the ground, unable to answer.

His hand on her chin was feather light, long fingers smooth and warm as he lifted the cupped silver to her mouth. The yearning for the blaze of power and energy that would shoot through her body at the touch of the blood on her tongue made her close her eyes tightly before lifting her own hand to grip his, steadying it as she kissed his skin, feeling the warm liquid slide into her mouth. Softly, his fingers shifted against her cheek.

The itch of her hand healing distracted her for a moment from the welling of strength that rippled from her chest. It gained force as the silver dripped down her throat.

"You will get used to it... _princess_." His whisper was almost gentle despite the added insult and Hinata kept her head down until he turned away. Listening to his delicate step she finally followed, feeling heat burning her neck and ears.

The problem was not that she was not used to it. It was doubtful there would ever be a day when his magic and power didn't overwhelm the very make up of her skin.

The problem was that, despite her protestations... she had been craving it for days.

* * *

Tenten sat up from the half doze of keeping watch, her eyes interested in the softly falling summer snow. In endless layers bits of cotton fluff from the iron saplings rained down, their seeds minute within the whiteness as it drifted. Above the sky was already starting to change to the orange and red hue of a bloody dawn and she let out a blew through pursed lips, watching as the snowfall of cotton swirled with her breath.

Around her Kiba, Shino, Neji and her brother lay sleeping, although as she studied them through the last part of the night she noted their shifting muscles, their tense shoulder, the way their eyes flickered open to look around before falling back into an uncertain doze.

Being raised in the Valley made sleeping on the earth, with the crackle of leafy compost beneath your head terrifying, and Tenten understood. Having just spent a large portion of her night twisting and turning with nerves herself.

Stifling a yawn, her eyes lifted from studying her companions to the bushes on the other side of their clearing. Frowning as she registered movement in the branches almost too small to truly see.

Instinctively a ball of tension rolled to life within her stomach and slowly, eyes focused she slid her palm from the ground to her thigh where three throwing knives sat strapped, itching to be used.

Another shift in the leafy sheet rippled it's branches and Tenten felt her teeth clench to cracking.

The miracle of their long trek through a forest unseen, safe, hidden was over.

"Lee!"

Her scream ripped the silence and the peace, a contrast to the lazy falling cotton puffs that drifted over the ground. Gasping she threw herself to her feet, chucking the first knife into the foliage and hearing it's wet thunk into flesh followed by the sharp screech of a beast.

In a moment the men were on their feet, weapons drawn- Kiba hardly getting to his knees before a young and starving horkney slammed into his chest, taking him and Akamaru down in a heap.

There were too many of them to count, or perhaps too fast to do so quickly. With Shino at his side Kiba slammed his hunting knife hard into the horkney's mouth, making the creature stagger backwards but not before the sleeve of his tunic and the skin of his arm were ragged pieces from it's teeth.

Grunting hard Tenten took the first of the beasts to launch at her with ease, letting her body crumple to the ground. Kicking hard with her feet under it's rib cage sending it smashing to the trunk of the sapling she had been resting on.

"Run!" Lee's order was definite and left no room for questions. "Run, Tenten, run!"

Breathless, Tenten did as she was told, scrambling on hands and knees until she got her feet under her. Slipping and sliding on the crackling dry red of the leafy forest ground.

Together, half hauling Kiba she and Shino sprinted, glancing back just in time to see Neji's hands slamming into the final phase of a spell, with Lee slashing at horkney's mouth inching towards his Lord.

"Run!" Shino ordered, feeling the hesitation in Tenten's stride. "Run, Tenten!"

Having never heard such a tone from her friend Tenten snapped her head back, feeling the hiss of Neji's magic and without having to see knowing the yelping cries of the horkney's meant the spell had been somewhat effective.

A moment later Lee's voice was coming up behind them. "Go! Don't stop!"

Lungs burning, stumbling over the roots of the saplings too weak to hold their weight and too small to hide them the group ran, hearing the growling pants of the pack back on the hunt, their heavy wet snorts thick with the anticipation of a meal.

"There's nowhere to go!" Tenten gasped, sliding her shoulder painfully against a slate wall as they tumbled down a curving hill wrapped around the tall tower of rock. "Where do we go?!"

"Just move!" Neji's snap was decisive. "Move, don't stop!"

Stumbling now Kiba's white face and the blood leaving trails on his tunic made Tenten shake her head. "Neji, Kiba is-" She glanced back, just in time to see Neji far behind, his back to them, hands up again in the sequence of his unlocking magic. One look at her brother's strained face made Tenten slam to a stop, leaving Shino to continue dragging Kiba alone.

"No!" Her steps were impulsive, no thought put into them. "No! Lee- he can't-"

"Do as you're told, Tenten!" Lee's snap was furious, or mourning or crying she wasn't sure how to describe it as his arms slammed around her and despite her thrashing pulled her back. She didn't realize she was screaming, didn't realize he was throwing her over his shoulder.

"Neji!"

The electric snap of magic then was more potent, and as the summer snow of the trees drifted it seemed the whole wood was a conductor for lightning, flickering from sapling to sapling.

The horkney's were coming on him now, their bodies sleek and black against the redness of the brightening woods cast in the shades of the dawn.

With a fist to the ground his magic let out a deep boom, not so much a sound but a throb that echoed within Tenten's chest and with it the saplings suddenly danced. Roots lifted, twisting and shaking in the soil.

The horkney pack jumped and skittered, letting out keening sounds of wariness as things usually immobile suddenly moved like snakes, spraying dirt and leaves as they tangled their legs, slammed into their bony sides, sent them sprawling into the ground, twisting around their torso's and necks.

Tenten watched with eyes so wide they reflected the trees, the earth and the sky, and Neji at the center of it all, pouring his life into the soil begging it do his indulgence.

If he didn't stop, he would die.

 _Please Veil..._

 _Please... don't let him die..._

The horkneys continued to fret, tearing at the roots, twisting their long legged paws through the sapling skin. Their vicious slobbering maws growling and snorting with determination to be free.

Watching, shoulders tense Neji poured more of himself into the earth, more of his energy, more of his heart beats, urging the forest to move, to tighten, to destroy.

"Oi!" A voice unfamiliar and therefore startling made Tenten scramble in Lee's grip to look over her shoulder.

Shadows loomed between the trees, darkly clad and running in their direction. In front one raised a bow, pulling it's string back hard, his eyes focused.

"Look out!"

Lee needed no second invitation, with a grunt he and Tenten hit the forest ground, slamming to a stop that knocked the air out of their lungs.

Shino and Kiba ahead crumpled to their knees and Tenten gasped, looking up in time to see the other shadows ahead letting a volley of arrows fly.

No sooner had they flown than the horkneys cries ripped the abrupt silence and as their wails stilled Tenten scrambled to her knees, grabbing on to a sapling to raise herself to her feet just in time to see Neji's body keel over onto the ground among the pin cushioned carcasses of the deadly pack.

With the air feeling poisonous in her chest she was up and running. Sliding to a stop at his side, heart slamming in painful horrible punches in her chest, threatening to crack her open and vulnerable to the world.

"Neji... Neji, come on..." Licking her lips she lifted him in her arms, cradling his head in her lap. "No, no, no... please... come on."

In moments Lee was beside her, breathless and tense. "Warren," shakily he pressed a hand to Neji's pale throat, trying to decipher another heart beat from his own so loud and strained.

"Was he hit?"

Shakily, Tenten looked up at the sight of the shadow who had screamed at them to duck. She watched as he came jogging forward, pulling a thick scarf from his face to reveal clever dark eyes and hair stuck tight to his head in a ponytail. "We have a healer- is he...?" he paused, studying the pale young man in her arms.

"He has a pulse." Lee suddenly snapped, and without a word scooped up his friend so tall and broad shouldered like the burden was easy. "You said there's a healer?"

"Yes..." The archer nodded, glancing back briefly at the pile of horkney bodies strewn through the wreckage of the roots and tilted saplings. The arrows stuck out of the bodies awkwardly, some having slammed home between the gaps of thick sapling trunks bent at strange unnatural angles around the attacking creatures. Roots pierced fur, tangled legs, encircled throats.

Those eyes did not just appear clever. Sharply they snapped to Lee and his burden hurrying in the direction of the others who were helping Kiba and Shino up.

"Magic..." he frowned, turning then to Tenten who was staring at the chaos of the forest once so normal and smooth, her jaw clenched to keep her chin and lips from trembling.

To have so many trees reply to his call, to have the forest turn from nourishment to violence was a feat not easily performed. Anxious now she turned to the archer.

"I am Shikamaru." He studied her carefully.

"...Tenten." Her reply was choked. "We...we are...from the Valley of the Hawk Eyed." Her body shivered irrepressibly and Shikamaru put a hand lightly on her arm, even as his face flickered with surprise and curiosity.

"Come, these woods are not safe. We were out doing a patrol, our village is that way." He pointed over the small incline, dotted with the thin red leafed trees where the rest of his band stood. A blonde was examining Neji in Lee's arms, frowning intently.

Pulling Tenten towards the others, Shikamaru waved his hand in a circle in the air and two of their band moved to walk behind them, keeping Tenten and her group in the center with the blonde looking at Neji carefully as they walked.

"What was he doing?" she snapped, glancing up at Lee first and then at Tenten when Lee's tense expression gave so little response.

"Saving us." Tenten offered finally. "He was saving us."

Beside her Shikamaru looked at the healer, letting out a sigh. "Magic, Ino. They're from the Valley of the Hawk Eyed Clan."

Something like the same surprise and curiosity that had flashed over Shikamaru's face fluttered on Ino's then, just as the gates of the village came into view behind her.

"The Hawk Eyed?" Mouth open slightly she looked down at the young man in Lee's arms. "He...he looks like her."

Kiba, pale and bleeding snapped his gaze up, just as Tenten and Shino did.

"What?" Kiba demanded, moving as though to walk to her, although Shino held on, catching him as his weak knees trembled beneath him.

"What did you just say?" Tenten was there in moments, taking Ino's shoulders firmly. "Who? Who looks like him?"

"The girl..." Ino gasped, glancing at Shikamaru quickly. Gently he pried Tenten from Ino, shaking his head. "We don't know her name, she refused to give it."

"You...when?" Tenten searched his face, even as a shout of welcome reached them from the tower in response to Ino's frantic waving.

"Days now." Shikamaru frowned. "She stayed for a few hours, picked up supplies and headed back out."

The creak of the gate grunting on it's chains distracted them for a moment and Tenten watched as it rose, surprised to find an entourage of people on the other side waiting, among them a tall blonde with her hands on her hips, looking stern.

"What an exciting month we're having." She snapped, walking forward towards Kiba first, examining the arm in expert hands clearly unfazed by the bloody mess. "He's losing blood too fast." She grumbled, eyes snapping to Ino. "You have about ten minutes to get that bleeding under control. Move now."

"Yes, Master." Ino snapped forward then, herding Shino and Kiba in through the gate with the help of another young man on the other side.

Tsunade turned to Neji then, her eyes flickering over the strange trio left of the newcomers.

"Was he injured?"

"No." Lee finally managed, looking at her face directly.

"Hawk Eyed." Shikamaru offered then, jaw tight. "There was magic in the woods..." He glanced at Tenten and Lee. "Much more than I have ever seen."

The woman glanced first at Lee then at Tenten, gaze searching. "I go the first thirty years of my life without meeting a single Hawk Eyed warrior and now here in the span of a week I am flooded with them." She frowned. "But neither of you bear the eyes."

"No." Tenten let out a breath. "We are..." she hesitated, glancing at her brother for approval. Lee nodded then. No point hiding.

"This is the Warren." Tenten whispered, motioning to Neji. "Guardian of the heirs of the Clan. We are his shadows. I am Tenten." She swallowed. "This is my brother Lee."

Tsunade stared, mouth parting slightly. "Oh...Hell's Maw."

"You have seen another member of our Clan." Lee suddenly put in. "You have seen a young lady?"

"Yes." Tsunade's shoulders drooped slightly, even as she pressed a hand to Neji's forehead, lifting her index finger to the shimmering bead at the center of her own. "But no time for that now. He has used too much of his energy... I will need someone to offer-"

"I will." Tenten's hands were already stretched to her. "What do you need?"

Tsunade's gaze lingered on her for a long moment, her smile a little sad before placing Tenten's palm on Neji's forehead with her own. "Take a deep breath, my dear. This will not be pleasant."

As the bead in the healer's forehead brightened to a shining blue green Tenten started, feeling the sucking of something leeching from her blood, her bones, her heart beat itself, a vacuum so vast all of her was being drained. She was the water at the bottom of a bucket full of holes, the sun feeding all the woods, the air being gasped into every lung.

It was all she could do to hold on. Shikamaru's grip around her waist the only thing keeping her upright as Tsunade ripped the energy from her body and poured it into Neji's.

Just as black began to inch at the corners of her vision and her knees began to cave Tsunade let out a breath, withdrawing her hand and pushing Tenten into Shikamaru's arms. Easily the young man scooped Tenten up, nodding at the archers poised on the tower.

"Are they going to be all right?" Lee asked, even as he followed Tsunade through into the arms of the fortress, aware that the gate was coming down heavily behind them, barring them from the wild outside.

"Yes." Tsunade's voice was wary, glancing over at Tenten slumped and half conscious in Shikamaru's arms. "They both will, but not for some time." Sighing deeply she motioned for another of the patrol team to move forward. "Sai, take the young lady to my home, Ino will be there treating the others." Turning to Lee the blonde squeezed his arm. "Follow Sai, I will be right behind you to make sure they're both well. I promise."

Uncertain but with no other options Lee watched as Tenten was passed from Shikamaru to Sai and hesitantly followed.

As soon as they had crested the hill Tsunade turned to Shikamaru.

"Report."

"Found them right at the boundary before the slate tower, getting chased down by horkneys. If we had not showed up, they'd be dead right now. Before that...Signs of the nomads." Her young captain sighed. "There was a heavy presence, they leave their hand prints covered in Rot all over everything." Sighing again he rubbed his forehead, more than just tired, exhausted.

"So they're coming." Tsunade frowned, thinking quickly of what she needed to do in case of another full attack from the nomadic tribe.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No, that's the thing." He looked back out towards the gate now closed, barring the danger out, leaving anyone on the other side stuck with the nightmares.

"We tracked them nearly ten hours towards the Rot." He licked his lips. "It looks to me like they were after someone." He twisted his mouth as he thought. "Someone carving something, going on the wood shavings we found."

Tsunade closed her eyes. "...the girl."

"The only part of this not making complete sense is the fact that she's one person." Shikamaru nodded. "What could she possibly have that the entire nomad Clan would want?"

Swallowing hard the blonde healer turned looking to where the new comers had disappeared, pressing her hand to her face. "What indeed?"

* * *

The wood was a blaze of buttery light slanting through the spires of bark and green pine. In this part of the Veil the woodland was nearly silent, an eerie quiet that made every movement loud. To compensate for the grating silence they had found themselves stopping more, talking more, aching to break the stillness in some way or other even if it was as simple as sitting on the poky pine needle ground and sharing a mouthful of Hinata's dwindling reserves.

The pack had been stuffed with breads wrapped in wax papers dotted with dried fruits and nuts. There were shredded coconut cakes packed tightly, sticky with loomloom butter that dripped off their fingers. At first Sasuke had always said no, until Hinata's pursed mouth and frowning gaze had lingered on him for a long moment. "It's going to go bad. I...I am not as hungry when you give me your- when I have the...I'm not hungry, I don't want it to go bad."

Smirking at her floundering and the redness on her cheeks Sasuke had extended a hand and eyes focused elsewhere Hinata had dropped a slice of bread onto it.

"Don't...stars eat?" She had mumbled, nibbling on her portion of bread absently. In reply Sasuke had taken a bite of the bread, fixing her with a look she was unable to hold.

After an endless day listening to the dust motes drift in the warm light of the sun Sasuke had stopped abruptly, motioning for her bow. "Take that out."

Wings extending elegantly from his back had littered the floor with their black shining feathers and grabbing a handful he had stormed through the trees, keen to get himself out of the twisting maze of his own mind growing more and more vivid with the constant silence.

With quick expert throws the feathers had jammed into high places along visible trunks, dispersed by several paces.

Hinata watched, sliding her pack off, relieved to be doing something other than walking in the quiet. Reaching for an arrow she drew, feeling how much easier the pull was after days of near constant strain.

"Do not stop moving." Sasuke muttered, returning with his wings folding carefully at his back, shrinking his form from ominous to manageable. "As fast as you can, strike the feathers."

Hinata started, surprised and then setting her jaw took a breath down to her toes.

"All right." Drawing she pulled, moving rapidly, her core held tightly to maintain posture, aiming in rapid fire succession at the differing targets.

The first landed several feet lower than required, the next closer, by the end of the first run her arrows were on target, cracking through the solidity of his sharp feathers with a crack that echoed in the silence.

Breathless, but thankful for something to occupy her mind Hinata turned to look at him. His nod was firm, dark eyes intent. "Again."

And so they worked, with Hinata slowly starting to strip off articles of clothing, first the scarf and then rolling up her tunic sleeves, cheeks pink, abs aching from holding herself straight.

Breathless she let her stiff shoulders lower, blinking in the coming dusk. It was the first day that they had spent so much time not moving forward towards the ever increasing stink of Rot, and she looked at him pondering what might cause such a sudden change.

"Do you just...make them?" Her voice made him start, turning to look at her as she filled her quiver again with the arrows he had just fetched from the high targets. "Did you hunt in the heavens?"

Sasuke looked at her evenly for a moment, unsure if the subject was something he wanted to delve into.

"No, we competed." He admitted. "We were judged on our craftsmanship, technique and aim." He glanced up then, where the sky was turning from azure and pink to a darker navy, streaked through in splashes of gold from Solatta's rapid descent.

Hinata's face betrayed her interest, the curiosity making her eyes shine, her lips almost smile. "Competitions..." she mused softly, then with a twist of her mouth she was removing the quiver.

Frowning slightly, Sasuke watched as she moved towards him, stretching out the equipment.

"I have an arsenal of weapons, I need not master this. You should use the time to improve what little skills you have."

Hinata let herself look just the slightest bit annoyed, brows pinched, mouth puckered with distaste. "...I know plenty of gifted archers." She raised her chin. "I know I have more than a little skill."

Sasuke felt his lips tug stubbornly to the side, a smirk rising despite himself. "You want to compete against a fallen star?"

Her distaste only seemed to grow, the outstretched bow and quiver frozen in the air between them by her steady hand. Feeling heat rush to her face with the humiliation she scrambled to think of what her cousin might say, or her sister.

Hanabi's voice, so missed and lovely with it's wild and bright tones echoed through her head and Hinata said the words, as steadily as she could.

"I suppose ...I would not want to compete against a member of the Hawk Eyed Clan either."

Brows up, Sasuke pushed away from the tree trunk, studying her curiously, openly surprised. "What?"

"I...I understand." Shrugging Hinata went to pull the quiver over her head and Sasuke grabbed it stubbornly, dark eyes flashing.

"You do not know of what you speak."

Blushing viciously now, but determined to keep her head Hinata clenched her jaw, handing over the bow as he slid the quiver across his chest.

"Well, please...show me."

A frown, unlike any she had seen yet flickered over his face, calculating and puzzled as he notched an arrow, his wings tight against his back, black shining plumes of smoke that never waned.

Crouching for a breather, Hinata hugged her knees, studying the elegance of his form. Worrying at her lip and the possibility that she would have to eat her words.

He moved like a flickering flame, his posture unwavering, his draws making the bow creak with the power of his arm. The arrows slamming home with snaps of force that disturbed the floating specks of gold shifting through slanting beams of light.

Despite the fact that his form and ability meant her demise Hinata smiled, pressing her cheek to her knee as she studied, taking notes on the movement of his steps, on the steady elegant arch from quiver to notched arrow.

In moments he had hit each targeted feather, and was just drawing for the last when a crack of branches made Hinata jump to her feet, and before she had taken a breath his arrow had loosed to the pile of wood they had gathered earlier for their fire.

A black patch of fur squealed and snorting loudly thrashed among the pine needles, sending up puffs of dust and ripples of sound in the uncanny stillness of the wood.

Sasuke approached with another arrow drawn, face impassive even as Hinata stepped forward, pushing the bow and arrow up away from the creature, breathless. "No! Don't!"

Stunned he opened his mouth with a scathing snap to stand down only to have her scrambling around the wood pile, swallowing thickly as she surveyed the damage.

The horkney was small, smaller than the creature that had attacked them by several hundred pounds, about the size of a dog and as equally starved as their old adversary. It thrashed, it's paw, not yet taloned due to youth, pinned to the pine strewn soil by Sasuke's impeccable aim.

"No..." Hinata whispered, crouching down. The wolfish thing let out a soft snarly whine and twisted from her as far as it could with it's paw stuck in place, wide gold rimmed eyes shifting back and forth between her and Sasuke, mouth pulled back in a wary snarl.

"It's a pup." She crouched, hugging her knees to make herself smaller. Even as a pup the black beast was easily half her weight and although his incisors were only pinky finger long that was plenty for tearing out an unsuspecting throat.

Unsure of how to proceed considering the last time he had suggested leaving something wounded Sasuke watched intently as Hinata reached back for the knife at her waist, moving slowly.

"Ssshh, shsss, little one." Flipping the knife expertly in her fingers she turned to Sasuke slightly, still keeping an eye on the trembling wide eyed creature.

"...Sasuke...?"

In that one word he suddenly understood, a frown appearing on his face instantly. "No."

"Please, we never tried to save his mother, but-"

"His mother?" Incredulous Sasuke removed the quiver and threw it on the ground, disgruntled. "You have no way of knowing if-"

"I knew something was stalking us." Hinata explained slowly, patiently, like speaking to a child. "I just was unsure what it was. It was distant enough to not be a threat without-"

"You knew something was on our heels for nearly two weeks and you didn't say anything?" The amount of incredulous in his voice was competing with the irritation.

"We are in the wild." Hinata frowned, glancing at him again, warily trying to divide her attention between one wounded and pinned creature and one dangerously irritated . "There are things prowling around always."

"I said no."

"I..." Hinata floundered, unsure of how to proceed without his blood to heal the wound. "...I'm not...I'm not drinking of it then today either."

Sasuke's glare was potent, reminding her of the scathing looks she had received newly in his keeping. "Don't go there."

"Please." Swallowing the knot of worry that suddenly sprung to life in her throat Hinata stared at him. "Please."

Glaring still he flicked his eyes to the creature sunk low on the ground, shaking visibly as the blood from it's paw flooded the ground where it was pinned.

"It would be your own demise you would be plotting. Entering the Rot and then the land of the Scaled Worm without sustenance-" He began and Hinata set her jaw stubbornly, turning back to the creature as though his speech did not merit her attention.

Realizing suddenly that this was a battle he was going to lose he let out an annoyed breath, snatching the knife from her hand so sharply she winced, feeling the bite of it on her palm even as he ripped it across his own.

Grabbing her hand he glared as the drops squeezed from his fist, pooling with the crimson of her own vital fluid, making a marbled red and silver swirl on her palm.

"If you try this again, I will slay the creature who inspired your disobedience." His voice was even, black eyes unamused. Hinata looked back for a long moment, wondering if stating how much she doubted that to be true would be too much and deciding against it nodded, crouching in front of the horkney.

"All right, little one..." warily she moved forward, watching as the beast shifted and twisted, it's incessant uncertain whine leaving it's mouth with every move of it's body.

Shakily the horkney watched as she took the arrow in one hand, inching forward with her cupped hand slowly waving beneath it's nose.

For a moment fear that it would simply aim to take a bite out of the limb offered to it fluttered through her chest, but like she had anticipated it knew a blessing when presented on a platter. Keening softly the pup lapped at her hand, the silver leaving stains on it's tongue that disappeared with every swallow until her palm was clean and with a grunt Hinata pulled the arrow hard.

It yelped, jumped back a step and stumbling on three paws flopped onto it's stomach, shivering.

Sasuke frowned, watching as it twitched and swayed, blinking it's gold rimmed eyes rapidly as though intoxicated.

"It's wound was too severe. It may not work at all." Secretly he hoped his blood put the thing out of it's misery and simplified the problem.

Hinata straightened, wiping her palm on her leg absently. "No..." Turning to look at him with the wash of Luminatus' last rays on her face she smiled, a tinge of something hungry, sad and confused on her mouth. "That's...what it feels like, to partake of your blood." She swallowed and looked away sharply.

Sasuke's gaze remained fixated, taking the words she had just said and turning them over in his mind.

"It had best not follow." He muttered finally, moving to kick the wood away from the puddle of blood it's wound had left behind.

Hinata's smile returned as she approached the swaying horkney pup now splayed with it's head on it's paws. "Would it be so bad, to have won someone's loyalty through kindness?"

"Something." Sasuke corrected automatically. "That's not a someone."

"Perhaps if it had a name..?"

His gaze stated the immense dislike simmering beneath the surface of his skin. Deciding not to push anymore Hinata settled between the horkney and Sasuke, and he wondered if she thought it would buffer the piercing glares he was throwing at it.

After lighting the fire, to the creature's disgruntled yelp, Hinata lay her head on her knees, studying the horkney before whispering softly.

"...You know, you never hit the last target. So technically..."

It took him a moment to realize what she meant and wide eyed he looked at her until she turned, pressing her cheek hard to her knee as she blinked at him.

"Technically what, _princess_? _"_ The strain of keeping his disbelief under control made his voice sound flat.

It wasn't so much a laugh as the soft ghost of one and closing her eyes she let out a breath shaking her head. "Nothing, Sasuke."

He turned away, startled by the sudden rolling tension in his body and the overwhelming lack of reply in his head. Stubbornly he gazed at the fire, staring into the empty void where a scathing retort should have been, finding nothing.

Silent as the dead, moving very carefully among the boughs of pine a bird unnatural and white as the eyes of the Hawk Eyed princess twitched it's head to the right, studying the unlikely trio sitting down below in the halo of fire.

Far away, past rolling hills, twisting forests, great sprawling rotting wastes and moisture sucking deserts a young man stilled, eyes closed among his party.

Behind him the sharp toothed mad eyed Kisame paused, his face twisting into something foul.

"Captain." He called and further ahead, with the last sliver of Luminatus burning bright along the flat plain of Rot Itachi turned, studying Deidara's frozen form.

Beside him Izumi watched, waiting like the others until Deidara's eyes flickered open, unfocused as they gazed on the scene in the forest across the great expanse of the Veil.

"...I have located the recently fallen star."

Itachi frowned worriedly, blinking through tendrils of dark hair buffeted by the wind that swirled the stench of decay around them. "Have you a name?"

"...black winged, dark haired." Deidara's voice whispered over the heavy battering winds, and after a moment he sighed.

"His companion calls him... Sasuke."

Izumi's hand on Itachi's arm was there in seconds, and he was glad. Like an anchor the warmth of her skin tethered him to the soil, keeping his mind from drifting with the growing shadows of the coming night.

"C...could it be someone else?" Izumi whispered. "Someone who shares his name?"

Itachi shook his head, turning to look up at the heavens, at the sprawling orange and navy fighting for dominance, only a few faint glimmering spots to sparkle in the midst.

"No. He has come." Itachi sighed, dark eyes vast an unreadable, hiding feelings twisting within the black. "My brother."

Kisame let out a sound like a strangled roar. "Orders, Captain."

Behind him Sasori and Hidan shifted, waiting.

"Take Hidan." Itachi murmured, the slate plainness of his voice more telling of his pain than any waver. "Try to reason with him first, Kisame. After that, attempt to dissuade him by other means if necessary." Closing his eyes he glanced to Izumi's black gaze matching his own.

"...I cannot be deviated from my task." He murmured, and her nod was all the assurance he needed. "Even he must wait."

"Hidan." Kisame turned, smirking at the man who grinned back just as madly. "Let's find the little brother."

As the night finally won and the suns disappeared Itachi watched his messengers rushing towards where he ached to go, the burden he bore more heavy than it had ever been in his 100 years of carrying the yoke.

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


	7. Choices and Loss

**_I am sorry about this chapter._**

 ** _When you get to the bottom you will understand_**

 ** _Because I will try very hard to take a break for the next two days to breathe and actually get feeling back in my arm._**

 ** _Binge writing is how I function but dudes, it's a rough way to live life. If the story doesn't keep me up at night I will be taking a few days to breathe, eat and sleep like a human being and then hopefully feeling more like a person I will continue._**

 ** _...that being said._**

 ** _I apologize._**

 ** _Much, much love_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

For over a week Sasuke shot glares back over his shoulder at the dark trudging shadow that tailed them. At least the horkney no longer hid. After several days of flinching from Sasuke's lethal stares he eventually seemed desensitized to their burning.

This was made abundantly clear when out of the blue he inched slowly towards the fire one night on his belly, ears flat and tail lowered in submission with a soft whine. Lips pressed firmly to keep from smiling, Hinata finally turned to Sasuke, eyes wide and begging in the firelight.

Jaw tight, Sasuke stared back.

"No."

It was a farce. Even as he turned stubbornly away from them both to look out beyond the shifting towers of increasingly bigger pines he knew it. The creature was too deep in a forest too empty to survive on it's own.

Despite it's size, growing bigger every morning he was still a pup by comparison to the mother Sasuke had so easily destroyed. His skills at hunting had become painfully obvious as he ran in frantic loud circles behind them, chasing triple tailed rodents with ears too big for their heads and eyes keen and beady in the half light.

"But... he could starve..."

"Hinata." Her name was becoming a common thing in his mouth and Hinata flushed whenever he said it, for although he was often annoyed it was still better than his more bitter _princess_ habit.

"...perhaps I can... perhaps, I could shoot something for him."

Sasuke's dark eyes lifted from the flames and fixed themselves on her, the slight disbelief there not well hidden at all. "It would have to be rather small. I have seen no signs of larger game."

"A...sulpike, or a crono bird." Hinata agreed, dusting herself off as she stood, already grabbing for her quiver. Sasuke watched this with his face carefully placid. Sulpikes were the teasing little vermin that made the poor horkney dash around with it's tongue lolling out of it's mouth as it panted, desperate to catch one of the furry balls that sprinted between his giant paws arrogantly.

Crono birds on the other hand had a wingspan that made Sasuke envious. With tiny lithe bodies covered in feathers of a blue so deep it seemed black except for when the sun hit it and lit it to a thousand brilliant cool shades, like the sky. The only thing not beautiful about the bird was it's eerie mute beak for it had no song.

"I will not be impressed if you lose arrows."

"Of course."

"And don't wander far."

"But the fire will have frightened all the game-" Hinata began and stopped as soon as his eyes fixed on her face. Swallowing the last of her argument she sighed. "All right."

Notching an arrow she eyed him for a moment longer until he looked back, waiting.

"...if...if I get one..."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. This thing she did, of bargaining for things she desired had begun subtly and now after a week taken on a real tangible shape. At first it was "If I can shoot all the targets correctly... will you tell me about the cities on the moon? Or the archery competitions? Or learning to make bows?"

Then, after a while it had delved into other things, such as this moment as she blinked at him sheepishly.

"If...I get a sulpike, or a crono bird... can we name him?"

Sasuke closed his eyes, turning away.

"It could kill you in the night-"

"N-no, you are always watching and-"

"It might very well just be waiting to be big enough to eat you in one bite."

"I don't think so... I mean..." she glanced at the horkney who seemed to know he was being discussed and with his head on his paws turned his gold eyes from her to Sasuke, as though to lament how badly the argument was going.

"Sasuke." Her voice took on a more firm tone. "Just _look_ at him."

It took some effort not to snap at her not to order him around, but rather icily he eyed the offending creature who slowly lowered his giant black ears around his head in deference.

If it could have oozed honey sweetness it would have. Disgusted by the display Sasuke turned away, letting out a grunt of dislike.

"A sulpike and a crono, both."

"Oh..." Hinata bit back what was almost a whine and setting her jaw to her most stubborn flex, moved towards the thick darkness past the halo of the fire, muttering very softly to herself.

"Must you grumble?" Sasuke's call made her jump, even as the horkney came plodding along beside her, tail wagging and ears pricked.

"Ah! I...I apologize!"

Still, out of sight with her bow raised and her feet moving with the ghostly silence of her Clan she smiled.

She had been taking down sulpikes and cronos for days now, pretending to be practicing her growing ability to draw the bowstring, leaving the bodies for the horkney to devour.

It was not like her to lie, but then she rationalized that this was hardly a lie, more of a well timed disclosure.

Strangely enough Sasuke eyed her disappearing shadow from his place at the fireside, rolling his eyes at the creature's wagging overly excited tail moving in the dark.

With an exasperated sigh he turned back to the fire, rolling around ideas of what one would name the furry overzealous brute. After all he was no fool. He knew perfectly well what she was capable of.

* * *

Neji and Tenten did more sleeping in the week that followed than they had in likely the entire month before it. Lee watched over them day and night, sitting with his legs drawn up to his chest on the only wide bench in their room, arms crossed over his knees, chin on his forearms.

Tsunade assured him that the sleep was normal, that to balance themselves they needed the rest. Pouring their life first into the woodland and then into each other would have been exhausting. She failed to mention how exhausting it had been for her to correct it as well.

It was not like a member of the Hawk Eyed Clan to loiter and do nothing, especially for one such as Kiba however. So, finding his watchful eyes unnecessary in the hospital room where the Lord Warren and Tenten rested he wandered the village at the heels of Shikamaru, Shino following behind.

"Seems a waste, to destroy the forest." Kiba commented lightly as he caught sight of the wall through the squat houses and buildings that were dolloped in a mess that had no real structure. You would have had to be blind not to notice the fact that the village was old, edging on ancient. Homes looked almost grown out of the earth, squat but sturdy, small but comfortable. Even with the fading blue of their painted shutters and broken pottery for their flower pots.

"Wouldn't really have a village without sacrificing the Iron Trees." Shikamaru replied, walking ahead towards the gate with his hands in his pocket, the perpetually weary expression on his face plastered there like others wore a tan. "The nomad clans started ravaging the town on a more and more frequent basis the wider the Rot got on their own territories and by the time Tsunade was elected to be village chancellor there was only a quarter of it left. They took everything- even the foundation stones of the houses. If you look behind the village to where the grass fields are that's where the other three quarters of the town used to be." He shrugged.

"It was us, or the trees."

"I suppose." Kiba allowed, glancing back at Shino who as usual looked back silently. After the destruction of Kiba's arm by the horkney Shino had not left his side. Worse than Akamaru he was constantly plastered to him, and although endearing Kiba found himself both mildly amused and irritated.

"Well, if there's anything we can do..." Kiba began slowly, thinking it best to steer the conversation from the trees and the slight insult he had accidentally stumbled about the village to the Captain of the Guard.

Shikamaru eyed him. "Is your arm even well enough for work?"

"Miss Ino says I should be good to go in a few more days." Kiba's grin caught Shino's eye, and for a moment a pressure of worry lessened in the stoic young man's chest. Since Lady Hinata's departure for the star Kiba had not been the same.

Being a shadow with no opaque was the same as being cut loose at sea, worse than losing the one they had sworn their lives to in death, for in that instance the mourning and the consequent freedom that followed in a shadow's life was clearly set out.

There was no guide for the life of a shadow permanently separated from it's Lord or Lady. Like Akamaru without Kiba, appetite waned, thirst went unheeded, smiles disappeared.

Until today.

"Well... we can always use more eyes on the towers." Shikamaru admitted. "I expect that we will not be having a lot of movement, since the nomads seemed to be heading away from here in the direction of the Rot itself but it's best to be prepared and alert."

"We can do shifts." Kiba offered, glancing back at Shino again. This time, perhaps because he had been gifted the smile only a moment ago Shino nodded and Kiba's grin returned.

On his back Akamaru peeked his fuzzy white head looking around with mild interest from his carrier.

"It's the least we can do, to show our gratitude for all the help your village has offered." Kiba rubbed Akamaru's head awkwardly over his shoulder, frowning slightly as he thought of the debt they now owed.

Shikamaru shook his head as they neared the gates, waving absently at Chouji who as usual sat comfortably within the tower's first floor, ax on shoulder, mostly asleep.

"There's no need for payment, your Lady took care of that."

Shino froze and, on reflex Kiba stopped with him, frowning slightly at Shikamaru's retreating back. "Lady Hinata?"

"She came bearing medicinal gifts we could not pay for." Shikamaru tossed over his shoulder. "I believe Tsunade is rather glad to have something that will put her less in debt to the Hawk Eyed Clan."

Looking at each other Kiba offered Shino a sigh and a weak smirk. Within their chests the twist of longing shifted at the thought of their friend and Lady, their precious one out in the wild they had barely survived themselves. "Of course she did."

"Come now, I'll show you the battlement." Shikamaru called, waiting for them at the steps. "You're going to want to know how to handle the nomads. They're...tricky."

"That would be very useful information," Kiba nodded, following close behind. "Once we're after Lady Hinata again we may cross paths."

Shikamaru kept his face decidedly away, looking purposefully at Sai who in that moment had the blessed gift of being able to smile in a manner that did not give away the worries beneath his and his captain's eyes.

Everyone who had been aware of the Hawk Eyed heiress coming through the village also knew now that the People of the Rot were after her. After some deliberating and hearing Lee tell the story of their goal Tsunade had only to look at Shikamaru to let him know there would be no mention of the situation to the outsiders until the Warren and Tenten were back in fighting form.

By then, likely as not it would be too late. But then there was nothing to be done worrying them unnecessarily.

If the nomadic People of the Rot were after the fallen star that Hinata had obviously been travelling with... then likely as not, they were already dead.

* * *

Sasuke had been surprised that there was the shine of victory about her face. Her cheeks had been flushed and her eyes wide as she threw (rather more aggressively than she needed to) not one but two cronos and a sulpike at his feet. She had had the luck of finding them nesting since the darkness had come and with her sharp eyes it had been an easy thing to slay the parents.

With her guts writhing, despite the necessity of the kill she had climbed the tree, retrieved the plum sized eggs and offered them to the horkney whose appetite appeared to have crushed all qualms about eating anything she so much as hinted might be for him.

Still licking his chops the beast huddled just out of Sasuke's periphery, waiting impatiently for the right to the bodies Hinata had left at his feet.

"I want...to name him... Shadow."

Sasuke's grimace was partly due to the dead animals, and partly at the awful name. "No."

"B..but you said-" Hinata began, and stopped herself sharply, clamping her mouth tight to hide her upset voice.

"You plan to name him after his coat color?" He grabbed the stiff dead creatures at his feet roughly and chucked them at the horkney then, watching with interest. It ran, tail raised like a war banner to tear them apart, salivating already.

The argument lasted several days.

"How...how about Guardian?"

Sasuke's furtive shake of his head had earned him a glare from behind and had he seen it perhaps he would have laughed. As it were he still smirked despite not catching the look, feeling the frustration coming off her in waves. "If he's guarding anything it's the right to eat you when you least expect it."

Hinata looked down at the horkney then, standing at her side he was tall as her hip, and after days of stuffing himself at any opportunity that presented itself had put on several pounds. The archery practice had been a blessing as Hinata took out more and more of the small rodent life that seemed the only moving thing in the stillness of the forest. Under the constant availability of food his shoulders had thickened behind his muscled head.

Looking back up at her the black creature let his tongue roll out of his mouth, pink and soft, gold eyes pools of affection.

"...I rather disagree."

Their walk had become harder, as the terrain began to rise and rocks began to jut out of the once smooth pine needle carpet. The boulders were sometimes cracked right down the middle by the enormous powerful roots of the pines that refused to take no for an answer while growing.

"That is all you seem to do lately."

Hinata felt herself heat up, licking her lips nervously wondering just how much she had been annoying him the last few days. It was a strange game she had been playing, prodding about to see what made his eyes flash with real disdain and then the more subtle disinterest of his approval.

"...did...did you ever have a beast companion, in heaven?"

Sasuke paused, glancing back at her from higher up the incline they were climbing. Above there would be a view to the Rot, he could smell it from even so far away. He was sick of the trees and their thick blinding boughs. He needed to see the wide expanse of home, to feel like if he wanted to fly he could do so.

"I..." He turned away, remembering the snowy white four legged creature made of starfire that had been his brother's companion growing up. It had never felt like his creature, but rather Itachi's despite the familiarity. "...his name was Amaterasu."

Hinata's steps crunched behind him in time with the horkney's soft panting.

"What does that mean? I...is it angel tongue?"

Blinking Sasuke glanced back at her, always amazed by the things she asked. "No... It is what we call fire." He frowned at her a little, biting back the comment about her lack of education. "It's what burns inside us."

"Amaterasu."

He watched, momentarily distracted by the way her mouth pursed to say the word, her pink lips pulling together in a similar fashion as when she kissed his palm to pour his pooled blood into her body.

Pearl eyes glowing in the unobstructed light of Luminatus and Solatta she smiled, just the barest turn of her lips at the corner. "Could we name him that?"

Pulling his eyes from her mouth with more effort than it should have taken he shrugged, as though it had nothing to do with him.

"Fine."

The horkney padded softly to her side, pushing his hard wide head beneath her palm, panting happily. Hinata smiled sadly down. Thoughts of a snowy white pup back home in the hands of her shadow flickered through her mind. Kiba's face lit with pleasure. Beside him Shino's usually stoic features had been unable to suppress a mild smile, infected by Kiba's wide spread enthusiasm for his new partner Akamaru. He had been nothing but a palm sized ball of cotton fluff when she had seen him. Now he was likely a full bodied pup. Clenching her jaw she sniffed, determined to keep thoughts of her friends from surfacing again.

"Amaterasu. Come."

Reaching the summit in silence was partly due to the fact that breathing in the stench of the Rot left a slimy feeling on the tongue, and partly due to them both being lost in their own thoughts. Breathless, Hinata attempted to steady her lungs, dragging in air through the nose that stung as the wind fluttered back her hair.

The outcrop was small, just a handful of paces wide and long, looking out to a vast flat land that was nothing but thick oozing mud, tufts of yellow dry grasses and patches of dry rock like scabs on a festering wound. It stretched out as far as they could see towards the mountains on the other side, standing tall and black as tar. To the right Solatta began it's descent coating everything in a gold and pink hue that caused the pools of oily substance on the wasteland to glimmer in a mockery of beauty.

"Veil... it's vast." Hinata breathed finally, looking out at their coming challenge.

Sasuke ground his teeth grimly. "The Scaled Worm is clever to hide behind such a defense. Anyone coming to beg for his help will enter weakened if not dying. Desperation makes a bad negotiator."

"...what...what does he have that you would need?" Hinata glanced nervously then at Sasuke, having wondered this many times and although she was fairly certain she knew the answer it still made her mind fretful.

"The ability to find my brother." Sasuke shrugged, turning away from the sight to gather wood for their usual fire. "He will smell his blood so similar to mine and tell me where he is... or where he will be, and I will hunt him down and kill him."

Watching his retreating back Hinata bit her lip, drawing away from even the half formed thought of ever having to desire the death of Hanabi or Neji with such coldness.

Worriedly she turned back to the panorama of death before her, sighing deeply. Back home the elders would be watching the Rot move forward in the direction of their valley, licking at the sides of their mountains and forests with vile intention. Her Clan would be going to the very edges, where the smell in her nose would assault them and placing stones polished smooth and shining, painted white to mark the progress they would tally the loss of wood land to the decay.

Behind her, gathering wood for a fire to keep her warm was the one whose bones would have kept it back.

Biting her lip hard she flexed her fingers around the solidity of her hunting knife hilt, stunned by the aching hollowness that replied as the thought of his blood and the power within it entered her head.

None of her training had prepared her for what the action of saving her people and valley would look like. Despite the gray they bore for taking life. None of them dared to to name her Calling what it was.

Looking back to where he had disappeared she watched as Amaterasu followed Sasuke's steps, hesitant at first then more confident as he wasn't shooed away, tail wagging cautiously.

It would be murder.

Saving her people...would require she _murder_.

Yet before her the rot stung and stank, the wind that rushed over it's vast plains laughing as swept the disgusting stench into her face. The decay mocked with it's growing expanse, because the truth was his murder would be the saving of her people, just like keeping his life would be their death.

"Get this creature away from me before I carve it." Sasuke's snap held none of the venom she remembered fearing at the start, and Hinata jolted out of her thoughts, swallowing the knot in her throat as she hurried towards him.

"If he gets in my way one more time..."

"I...I'm sorry! Amaterasu! Rasu, come here!" Hinata called, straining to keep her voice even. When she entered the cover of the trees she was thankful for their shadows, hiding the torn expression on her face as his dark eyes lighted on her.

The Valley could not die. It was her Calling. Her fate had been written in her blood.

 _Oh, Neji... Hanabi...Father.._

 _What am I going to do?_

Looking back at her steadily Sasuke cocked his head, just slightly. "You look ill."

Before she could shake her head or come up with an excuse he had approached, hand extended in a pattern growing more familiar day by day. Wordlessly, Hinata drew her hunting knife, handing it hilt first into his palm.

He made the cut clean, the silver pooling in glowing, perfect beads. Eyes closed, Hinata felt the burn of the blood on her tongue, hoping he would not notice the tears she was going to waste lest he taste her indecision, her self loathing, her pain.

 _What am I going to do?_

* * *

Sitting together and yet very separate on the outskirts of the fire's light Sasuke attempted to not pay attention to her obviously craning her neck up to look at the heavens where the stars that remained glinted and glowed. Beside her Amaterasu lay snoring, a black inky darkness that was curled almost entirely around her small body, calm with her smell near.

The other thing that was determined to glow besides the stars was the smoothness of her long stretched neck as she stared up. Framed by the darkness of her hair so smooth it was distracting. He had been thinking entirely too much about that hair, about the way it was as black as his feathers and how sometimes he wondered if he touched it if it would be sharp as glass, slicing through his fingers.

"Um...Sasuke?"

Surprised he turned instantly to her, just barely snatching back the curious look from his face although it didn't matter. Her gaze remained fixed upwards, allowing him a great view of the long pale neck he had been purposefully not thinking about.

"If you're here... then...is the point of light you were up there gone?"

It took him a moment to understand her question. Like questioning if when he closed his eyes they disappeared. He cocked his head and then rather brusquely. "No...whyever would my tree disappear just because I'm here?"

Hinata's head snapped down to him at his words and although he had anticipated slight distaste with his condescending reply there was mostly just wide eyed curiosity. "Tree?"

He stared back, studying the expectant expression. Realizing again that although _he_ had been taught many things about the Veil, _she_ on the other hand...

"You know nothing about the Soul Trees?"

Carefully, with a shake of her head she untangled her arms from around her knees, sitting up earnestly. "Soul trees? What soul trees? Is that ...is that what the lights are?" She turned her face up to the sky again and then back to him.

Biting the inside of his cheek Sasuke turned back to the fire, debating with himself. On the one hand her curiosity seemed like it might eat her alive if it was not satisfied and it wouldn't take too long to explain. On the other hand...

He glanced at her again quickly, without turning his head. She bit her lip, worry gnawing at her at the possibility that he might not answer.

Sighing with exaggerated irritation he shrugged. "Each star has a soul tree, we are born when the sapling sprouts from the sky soil." He nodded up at the heavens. "What you see is the roots, spreading out. The older the tree, the wider the roots."

"Your...your soul is up there?" She was looking at him now, studying him like a thing anew. He winced slightly. "No, I am here. It... it is just a marker of my home." He sighed, suddenly hit by a pang of homesickness. "It makes certain that we are tied to our world and land, until we die."

"So you don't cut wood down then. How do you?" she waved at the fire. "How do you-"

"In time past we were given offerings by your kind." He frowned at her then. "Wood for weapons, and fires, although." He shrugged. "We are stars." His eyes blazed. "All we do... is burn."

It occurred to her then that the fire before her had come from between his lips, from within him.

"Oh..." she nodded, burying her face behind her knees again, studying the flames. The cogs and wheels within her head obviously turning very quickly.

"I knew we offered things... I didn't know it was things like wood, though. Is that how you knew what kind of tree to use for my bow?"

He nodded, dared a glance at the stars that made him ache so badly and turned back to the fire. "My brother taught me."

Raising her head again with interest Hinata let out a soft hardly audible word. "Brother."

Meeting her gaze past the flames Sasuke stared, daring her to continue. Stubbornly Hinata bit her lip and then began. "I have a... brother."

This was not what he had expected, frowning a little he continued to stare and say nothing, and taking that as a better response than him snapping her to be quiet she continued. "His name is Neji..." she smiled just a little. "He's very protective of my sister and I."

"I must not be a favorite of his then." Sasuke muttered thinly, and Hinata looked up from gazing at the flames, surprised for a moment by what was almost a joke before allowing herself half a laugh that she muffled with some effort. "No...I suppose not. But he always wanted me to learn archery." She lay her head on her arms, her voice less focused. "He thought it was more safe than the close combat I was required to learn. He would be glad I had such a great teacher."

The crackle of the wood seemed tame for some reason, less frightening as she stared at it thinking about the fact that inside of him somewhere a vast unquenchable fire raged. At first sight it seemed like he was nothing but the cold void of space.

She had been wrong, on several fronts about her fallen star.

"You should sleep." His voice was quiet, and carefully she turned her eyes to him through her lashes, holding as still as she would if faced with an easily startled fawn in the woods.

"Do you ever sleep, Sasuke?"

His smirk was instant despite the lack of eye contact, and she felt herself tighten at the sight of it. "I'm a star." he murmured. "I suppose I could, but I rarely want to."

Stretching out on the ground that was becoming increasingly more familiar and less awkward to sprawl on Hinata curled on her side, peering at him still through increasingly heavy eyelids.

She had not meant to say it, the thought was only half conscious even in her mind, so it was surprising that it filtered out of her mouth in a whisper.

"I can watch over you, if you ever want to..."

Sasuke remained perfectly still, unwilling to move, unwilling to even breathe. A long while after her breath had slowed to the familiar rhythm of sleep, only then did he turn. Silent, he studied her in the flickering light of the fire, trying to fathom how someone so small could make him so nervous.

* * *

Before they knew it, their pleasant wood land walk began to near it's end.

The trees that had so far survived the onslaught of the Rot were ancient beings. Even as they neared the edge where the mud and slime and death chewed incessantly at the ground it was those ancient trees that stood firm. Unwilling to succumb to the ever growing vapors of gas and filthy slimy air. The closer they got, the less small plants and saplings grew. With only a day left before their first steps into the Rot the sting of the stench had become background noise. Hinata had muttered it had probably burned the inside of her nose. He had silently thought her correct.

Sasuke stared up at the stubborn pine pillars, as he so often did when Hinata was asleep. Watching their tips disappear to points against the blaze of indigo and black of the sky.

He had never been in a land so blazing with vibrancy as the Veil. Above where the stars sparkled and shone he mused that depth of color in the sky soil lied about what hid behind it.

Creams, grays, whites and silvers were the natural monochrome make up of his childhood. Homes made of stone so white it glared in the light of of the passing Luminatus and Solatta. Not that their rising or setting did anything to their days. The time of rest and the time of labor were designated not by the suns wayward roll through the sky but by the bells that chimed from the towers of the lunar Umbra City.

Still, despite the bell tolling signalling the end of the "day" stars rested little. Their job as sentries of all three lands required constant vigilance and their bodies were made to withstand the rigors of constant training, education, preparation. It was the only way that passing through the atmosphere in the endless fall from Heaven to Veil to care for their charges could be withstood multiple times.

Once Sasuke had watched as a member of his brother's knighthood had gathered provisions for his journey. Armor for the bite of friction that came with being soilborn, star water gathered from the Well of Prayers where the wishes and requests of the humans were gathered at the center of Umbra City, and a sword because even in those peaceful days the Veil proved a fickle lover and could turn on a being at any moment, star or not.

Itachi had given the man instructions, whispers about a Clan he had studied whose prayers were particularly keen for compassion and courage, that he felt deserved a blessing. Not an indulgence for they had not requested this gift. Sasuke had been hardly tall enough to reach his brother's hip, cocking his head he had wondered what this blessing might be that this other angel was to pass on to the people of the Veil.

In the stillness of the Soul Wood the small gathering of stars had bid the angel good luck. With their bare hands lest they damage the roots of the trees, they dug away at the navy blue and spotted black of the earth until the gaping hole peered not towards more earth but to the atmosphere below where the Veil clouds drifted lazy in their white and lavender hues.

"Be wary of the rain, Shisui." Itachi had murmured with a smile, and his friend had snorted lightly. "Do I look a fool?" Carefully he lowered his legs through the hole, dangling as though at the edge of a pool. Face filled with trepidation and excitement he turned to Itachi one more time. "The Hyuuga."

"Yes." Itachi's nod was firm. "I believe they are worthy."

"If you have come to this conclusion then it must be so." Shisui shrugged in his boyish handsome way, the feathers on his back glinting pure and white against the glass green of the Soul Tree leaves behind him.

"Fare well." Itachi murmured, pressing a hand to his heart.

"For our glory." Shisui murmured, pressing a hand to his chest as well.

"And for those of the Veil Lands."

Shisui dropped through the hole, with no sound, no plop of water to receive him. Just the gaping maw of a rapid descent that would in their lifetime take but minutes. Sasuke however knew that for the people of the Veil the falling star would streak through their sky for weeks. Time was never quite the same in one plane as the other, and as he peered down the edge of the hole he twisted his small mouth with envy.

"Brother?"

"Hm?" Itachi's hands were busy with the soil, kneeling in the dirt despite the soft pristine blue of his trousers and the elegant waterfall of his cloak behind him.

"Why did you tell Shisui to...be wary of the rain?" Blinking Sasuke watched as the hole began to close, roots that had so amiably moved out of the way to allow the star passage tangling again into a network that held the sky soil in it's web.

"Rain is water. Like the liquid in the Well of Prayers, except that where that water is precious and holy to our bodies, rain..." He paused, looking up to find Sasuke's rapt attention on his face, eyes wide.

"Rain comes from above, it falls relentless and rapid. Some of us can stand it better than others." He touched his brother's cheek. "The more brightly you burn the less it bothers."

"Rain." Sasuke had whispered, blinking his onyx black eyes so beautifully prized in the Heavens where most bore gazes of gray, of brown and green.

"The Veil...sounds terrible sometimes." He admitted then, turning his worried frown to his brother. "How do the people there stand it?"

Itachi's laugh had been light, his hand stretching out flecked with dirt that smelled of home and growth and promise. Sasuke took it, feeling the familiar callouses on the palm and knuckle and fingers that spoke volumes about Itachi's immense prowess as a thing of war.

"They are not like us, they are like children." Itachi continued, and with the small entourage that had come to bid Shisui good bye they headed back towards the city, away from the exploding riot of trees that arched delicately above them in a canopy of glittering green.

"I am a child." Sasuke put in, frowning, not liking the idea of being described as a bad thing.

"Yes, and you are learning much." Itachi replied lightly. "Like they are. Some of them have much to learn." Softly he let out a sigh, worry flickering over his face.

Sasuke's young clever gaze missed nothing. Erasing the intense curiosity from his face the little one looked away. Casually, with small glowing white wings twitching their attempt at coolness he asked.

"What is Shisui doing? I heard you say a name. Hyuuga."

"Oh nothing." Itachi's reply was gentle, teasing, his smile knowing and therefore infuriating. "I _can_ say however that it was your idea."

Face lighting up with a mixture of delight and frustration Sasuke floundered, mouth gaping as he scrambled to find words to the questions rollicking around in his head. "Eh! Brother, please- tell me what he-"

"Are you not late for a lesson with Master Kakashi?"

"Brother- brother please, I-"

"Sasuke, go on. You will have time for knowing all the secrets in the world when you have grown. Enjoy your childhood."

 _Enjoy your childhood._

Frowning Sasuke shook his head mildly, trying to clear the image of his brother's face so clean and relaxed, his eyes so open and welcoming.

What a sham it had all been.

With the roiling of anger and frustration that rose from such thoughts so did other memories. His mother dragging him hard despite his thrashing, of explosions that ripped bits of the moon bite by vicious bite, demolishing towers of ancient cities that had stood for millennia. With the black of the sky and the brightness of the planets looking on unfazed by the gore Sasuke had shrieked for his brother, his confusion at the color of his armor making him inconsolable. How could his brother, the one he loved and hoped to one day emulate wear the black of Danzo's treacherous band?

How could he be a traitor?

It couldn't be.

It couldn't be.

The pain had consumed him, so much so that it wasn't until his mother's body collapsed in her attempts to pull him back that he realized her armor and the long tunic she wore beneath it were soaked in the silver of blood. Not from the battle, not from slaying those who dared attempt a coup on the moon, but her own. Her voice had been ragged, her eyes black as his own losing the park of the stars within their deepening iris.

 _"Sasuke...your brother... you need to...take care of..."_

It had snuck up on him, that memory. The image of his mother's gaze emptying, of her words unsaid dying on her silver stained lips.

Breathless, Sasuke shoved himself to his feet in the clearing, mouth dry. Heart aching in his chest with every beat. Softly, with his eyes flashing to the sleeping form of Hinata tucked against Amaterasu his voice came in choked whispers.

"No... no, no, no."

It had been so long since those thoughts had twisted in his mind, sharp as jagged etched glass, tearing him apart. With a fist of the black tunic in his hand he breathed out softly, pressing hard against the space beneath his ribs where the pulse of agony bled from.

It always astounded him how a broken bone or the tearing of his flesh could sting and burn and still be put from his mind in the fray of battle, but the throbbing wound of his heart break still had the ability to bring him to his knees with the simplicity of a wayward memory come to pay a visit.

In the stillness the fire crackled and crunched, and he stared into the flames, trying to focus on their wild and spirited dance.

He had to think of something else, he had to put his brother's smile from his mind. He had to wipe away her gasping breaths, her dark eyes searching his face as silver stained her lips, her cheeks...

Like the flames before him memories flickered in his mind, a play of images tangled together and for a moment he was looking at both his mother, dying in his young arms with the silver shining against her soft pale skin. And Hinata, pearl eyes dazed, the touch of his blood staining the corner of her kissable mouth, her cheeks the foreign beautiful pink of the Veil's bashful.

Opening his eyes he turned to her then, studying her curled form, small compared to the girth and fur of Amaterasu's black muscles.

Pressing his lips together he stared, watching the even in and out rise of her side as she breathed, knees drawn in, her hand relaxed on the ground, her scarf bunched beneath her head for a pillow.

In the shifting light of the fire she always seemed so small. Despite his attempt to dissolve her fear of the flames she still eyed their nightly fires with suspicion. Although, he had noted that unlike before where she had been so far from them the shadows had hid her, now she could sleep with it only a few feet away.

Amaterasu shifted, opening one gold ringed eye to look at Sasuke in the dim light, his pointy tufted ear turning towards him in question.

Sasuke smirked then, surprised at the pull of his mouth even as he slowly settled himself back down to the ground. That damn beast, with it's vicious mouth lined with deadly treacherous teeth and talons growing faster than bean sprouts would (of course) choose Hinata as his new mother.

"Stop." Sasuke muttered finally at the creature, shooting it a look of irritation. Just because they tolerated each other did not mean they got along. "Go back to sleep."

A low deep grumble reverberated from Amaterau's body, and wincing a little Sasuke watched Hinata shift, her hand tucked tightly to her side readjusting on the handle of her hunting knife in her sleep.

After several breaths both the beast and girl seemed lost again in their dreams and Sasuke let his shoulders relax, studying her without restraint.

He clenched his jaw against the thoughts slowly whispering to life inside his head, questions about her wiggling cautiously for attention. Before any of them could truly form to speak about the nerve wrecking feeling of having her eyes on him the silence stole his focus.

Feeling rather than seeing intruders Sasuke paused, dark eyes sliding slow and smooth over the spread out pillars of the pines, thickly enmeshed in the white whisper of what looked like fog.

It crept and edged, twirling like fabric in a stream, buffeted by soft breathy winds. On Hinata's side Amaterasu suddenly lifted his head, gold eyes glinting in the fire light. Both ears raised and turning in sharp twists on his head as he listened.

Sasuke's gaze flickered to Hinata then, aiming to whisper her awake only to find her hand clenching the now unsheathed hunting knife tightly, pearl eyes clear and focused on his face. Her pink mouth pursed for a moment as she too listened without moving.

It started with a slow, dark drum beat.

Like a heart it pulsed in careful throbs, so deep it seemed to come from within their own heads booming through the wood and bouncing from trunk to trunk, making it impossible to pinpoint it's birth.

At the first pulse Hinata pushed herself to a crouch, her knife gripped in white but steady knuckles.

Amaterasu's hackles raised, taloned feet digging into the pine needles and soil beneath his enormous paws, a growl as deep as the booming drum vibrating from within his muscled sleek black chest.

"Get into a tree." Sasuke's whisper was deft, even as he pulled the tunic he wore over his head to better free his wings, his jaw set at the sight of flickering light coming from several different points in a circle around their small fire.

"What?" Hinata's snap was flat and unimpressed. "There are many, I'm not-"

"Do as I say." Sasuke's icy bite froze on his tongue when he glanced to the pines around them and his eyes widened.

There would be no climbing to safety.

Following his gaze Hinata let her mouth fall open, breath forgotten in her lungs, unused.

The pines, so tall and awe inspiring reached into the darkness of the night, their boughs heavy laden with needles thickening the shadows to an oily black. Hanging from the branches twenty feet up in thick bunches like ugly frightening fruit were the bodies of dozens of men looking down upon them.

For a moment there was nothing but the booming of the drum, always even and steady like a heart in rest. The men hung from one arm. Like hairless monkeys smudged roan red with crusted mud, with their feet pressed to the trunk, their free hands wrapped around long spears tipped at first with what Hinata had thought was off white stone.

Upon closer inspection, with her eyes sharp with fright she picked out the shape of a jaw, the dull white shine of human teeth wrapped crudely to the staff.

Bones. Their spears were tipped with human bone.

"People of the Rot." Hinata's whisper betrayed the terror eating at her insides. Shaking hard she stepped back, unconsciously drawing closer to Sasuke whose face had gone deadly still.

"What do they want?"

Hinata shook her head. "I...I don't know..." Right at her side Amaterasu growled, and the men looking down at them so silent and still turned their heads as one to study the creature.

From their hordes a voice called out, even as the drum in the distance seemed to gain pace and fervor.

"Controlling the beast is for it's benefit. Lest you want it upon our roasting spit."

Eyes shifting slowly Sasuke rotated one shoulder, restraining the urge to snap his wings from his back. Silently he counted the many opponents with distaste. He had been too well trained not to know when he was outnumbered, and although the likelihood of a victory on their side was still miserably low, it was also high that Hinata would pay the price for not thinking.

"What do you want?"

"We have been tasked." The voice still came without a body, deep, male and rough as though from constant sickness. Any of the faces above him could have released it's sound, and in the background the drum continued, speeding in painfully slow increments.

"We come for the Ichor of the Fallen."

Sasuke's face tightened, a snarl curling his lip as his dark eyes bloomed with blood lust and power. Hinata snapped her head towards him then, feeling the dangerous shift of pressure in the air in a growing bubble around his shape. Right before her eyes his wings exploded, not slowly like uncurling petals reaching for the sun as per usual but a shattering spray of ebony razors that flashed and glistened in the light with the desire for cutting.

Choking on the power of his magic swelling she stumbled back, with Amaterasu keening nervously at her side.

"Hinata." His voice was no longer familiar, a metallic tinge like the silvery shine of his blood now marred it and although his eyes remained fixated on the threats hanging above she felt as the panic ripped through her, ice suddenly flooding her veins.

"Run."

There was no arguing with that tone, with the push of magic that swelled around him. No sooner had he said it than her limbs complied. Like an arrow released with his unerring aim she shot through the dark, snatching at the bow and quiver on the ground as she sprinted hard into the trees. Right on her she heard the ulutating sounds of the Rot People's war cry echoing through the pillars of pine.

Amaterasu ran, a shadow at her side that growled, ears twisting and turning attempting to locate the incoming danger.

She had only made it out of the halo of light, just past the brightness offered by the fire when the pounding sound of Sasuke's wings and the force of their flap sent pine needles in a hurricane behind her, forcing her to raise her arms over her face as she ran to save her eyes.

In her head the fear bloomed like a bruise, fear that he would only send her away if he was unsure of the outcome, uncertain of victory.

Uncertain that he would survive.

Panting hard she glanced back, sliding the quiver over her head in time to see the shifting shadows of the Rot People. Jumping from tree to tree, moving like silent deadly crows smeared red and brown. Only the wild whites of their eyes and the glinting shine of their teeth between their snarling lips showed in the dimness.

Breath burning in her lungs, tears stinging in her eyes she pushed. The acidity of Sasuke's blood pumped power into her thighs and calves, speeding her on like a lithe doe through the trees.

Amaterasu snarled a warning, spinning around ears flat on his head and Hinata took the cue. Twisting hard, bow up, arrow notched, her blessed gaze zeroed on the careening form of a wild man falling at her from the trees, spear raised, teeth bared.

With Sasuke's voice in her head whispering she did as she was taught.

 _Draw._

 _Breathe in._

 _Release._

Despite the explosion of blood as the arrow pierced his throat, derailing his trajectory and throwing his head back with a sickening wet grunt she didn't stop. Sucking air hard into her lungs, she turned and ran. There was no horror screaming in her mind, no pain, no mourning. Just his voice in her memory, tinged with a smirk.

 _Good, Princess._

Beside her Amaterasu's approval rumbled like thunder and together they ran on.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	8. Tasting Compassion

_**So, taking a break was a bad idea.**_

 _ **When I went to pick back up, I found I was blocked, really blocked despite knowing exactly where the story wanted to go and so I have been trying to write this chapter for several days.  
**_

 _ **I am not happy with it, I feel I could have had more clarity and that my battle scenes were boring and stale but I think if I hang out here much longer I might kill the story. It's time to move past this chapter and head towards the wasteland and the mountain of the Scaled Worm.**_

 _ **I apologize in advance, but I thank you all for your encouraging reviews on all the last chapters. Some of you guys really left me shocked that you found the story so engaging. I am so very glad and happy. THank you thank you.**_

 _ **Much much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

Elegance had been bred into her body from the moment of her conception. She was a thing made blessed, with eyes to see and ears to hear and muscles to move all more smoothly more beautifully than most. This was not something she knew, although it had no need to be known for it to function.

There was something perhaps more blessed in her deadliness due to her self deprecating ignorance.

Even as her heart quailed to slaughter.

"Hn!" Grunting hard Hinata spun, her arm aching with the force of her draw, eyes shining by the light of the moon slipping and sliding through the thickness of the fog and mist. Her turn gave her three seconds through the fanning darkness of her hair to draw, aim, fire.

Hissing as it cut the air the arrow snapped from her bow with deadly intention and rising above the misting white of twirling fog through the trees it found its mark in the pursuers throwing themselves from trunk to trunk, their ululating cries punctuated by the fall of bodies as she ran and slayed due to necessity.

Amaterasu beside her growled, his hackles raised and ears flat to his head as they sprinted again, skipping over the treacherous rising curls of roots hidden in the mist and shadows, dodging through the thick pillars of ancient pines. Breathing in the coolness of the night and the ever present pungent tang of the Rot, now more prominent with it smeared all over her hunter's bodies.

"Rasu!"

Hinata's voice echoed back to her strangely in the dark, and as her eyes took in the shifting floating lights of torches ahead her heart clenched painfully in her chest even as her lungs burned and sweat poured.

There would be no escaping- she had been cornered. Before her a trap lay with an unknown number of assailants.

Behind her predators flocked, their voices echoing with their eerie war cry so much like beasts of the trees.

"Rasu, now!"

Together they spun, turned heel hard like they had been together forever, Amaterasu in complete harmony with his adoptive mother's body. Leaving scars of their tread in the forest floor from the aggressive turn they shot back towards their attackers, a charge that would prove deadly one way or the other.

The question was, would Hinata or the Rot Clan who chased her be left standing.

Heart in her throat the Hawk Eyed heiress raised the bow, took aim and hearing Neji's comforting steady voice in her ear took heart as well, _"Do not hesitate. It's in your blood."_

The explosion of crimson as her arrow hit home again and again splattered the trees, a macabre paint that marked her growing panic.

There were dozens. Too many, she realized as she and Rasu came upon their encroaching descent. Too many for her arrows.

He came out of the darkness of the pine boughs, spear shining it's bone tip high as he slammed down, teeth bared and eyes wild.

There was time only for a widening of her own gaze, a gulped breath to fill her lungs and then the bracing for impact.

Training, so long hated, so constant in her life, beaten into her skin by the bamboo rod and sheer desperate determination took over, spreading her legs, lowering her core she clenched her teeth and swung the bow in a wide arch up to meet him.

The man took the blow from the curved wood hard to the face, the crunch of his nose succumbing to her fury and terror loud enough that for a moment only the high pitched sound of her disgust rang on her ear drum and then like a nightmare taken off mute sound erupted again.

The drums hitched a rhythm of craze and unrest. Her heart throbbed within her chest, pumping blood so hard each beat pained her jugular and beside her Amaterasu growled deeply. Snapping and snarling, he launched himself at the next attacker to try harming his new love. As they went down Hinata gasped, dodging another swinging spear, another flashing pair of teeth curled back in a snarl on a face too pasted with Rot for any other feature to be visible.

"Hn!" Twisting hard she threw her elbow into the attackers face, hearing the snap of his teeth and the gurgled shriek of his mouth filling with blood at the near clean slice of his tongue between his slammed jaw.

Turning hard and sending him flying backwards into an ally with a kick to the stomach she dodged, falling to a crouch, sweeping the feet of the next with a hissing cut of her bow across enemy knees. The cry of her victim died abruptly by Amaterasu's bloody maw snapping over his throat as he hit the forest ground.

There were too many.

Her eyes flashed as she straightened, as she spun the bow in her hands like a short staff and blocked a blow from a spear shaft hard, feeling the vibration of the impact on her forearms and palms deep within her bones.

Too many for her.

Too many for Amaterasu.

Her heart twisted painfully, even as she heaved for air, as she kicked her opponent away, reached back and raised another arrow to her bow string.

Too many for Sasuke.

Out in the distance a sound like the crackle of lightning echoed and a roar filled with magic and power shredded the silence of the empty wood.

If anything other than the vermin and crono birds she had spotted on their journey lived in the woodland it had made the correct choice to hide in the shadows for the night. Deep in it's hovel it listened to the twist of power and agony that rippled through the darkness and wondered what terrible creature was being felled- and by what terrible means.

Hinata knew.

She paused, stunned to silence and stillness by the echo of the cry, by the rippling magic that shuddered through the fog and left a tang of electricity in it's wake.

Around her the Rot Clan stilled as well, and in the moment of peace Amaterasu bared his bloody teeth.

From above in the swirling shadows of the pine tree boughs a voice, lazy and uninterested called.

"She bleeds crimson."

Hinata let out a breath then, feeling her chest heave and from her cheek a warmth seeped, leaving a trail of red sliding down. A tear of no value to the Star who screamed.

"Tch. Waste of time. Retreat to assist our brothers in the culling of the Star." The same voice continued, and the warriors hesitated only a second before pulling back, melding into the fog as though they had never existed.

"You," The voice hissed and Hinata snapped her bow up, although her eyes could not find him hiding in the darkness. "You would do well to run from this place and not look back. You would do well to leave. Today, the People of the Rot have desecrated a Star. Tell anyone with ears of the might of our Clan."

Heart still thumping too quickly to think, Hinata trembled, watching as the tip of her arrow gave a shudder, her gaze two blinding moons in the semi darkness.

"It is foolish... to think you can overwhelm a star. Your people are dying." She wished so desperately that no tremble in her voice would betray her fear, her lack of faith in her own words.

A chuckle, low and unamused replied.

"Pearl eyes... Hawk Eyed are you? How very interesting." The shadow shifted, and even as she stared up the Rot Clan retreated back into the trees. She was unimportant with no silver in her veins. As were the dozens of bodies littered on the ground torn to shreds by Amaterasu's talons and teeth, scored with her arrows.

"It would appear your people have been relegated to secondary in the hunt for the Fallen. We will use his Ichor, we will heal our sick...We were humble enough to seek assistance from one who is wise beyond our capabilities. We came well armed. It would appear your Haw Eyed arrogance has cost you your freedom. Lucky for you my orders are to retrieve his body, otherwise..." The silence that followed was oily and Hinata shuddered, her arm straining to hold the arrow in place. "...perhaps you would have been of _interest_ to us."

Amaterasu's growl broke the tense silence and the creature- for Hinata could no longer think of him as man- let out a chuckle again, lacking all mirth.

"Run, little rabbit. Run."

Like crows hopping from branch to branch they disappeared and Hinata kept her arm raised listening to their shifting bodies through the trees, her arrows aimed at the shadows.

The moment they were silent, she ran, grabbing arrows from bodies of the fallen she had slain to refill her quiver as she went, her chest tightening and her breath hot as lava with pain as she sprinted.

 _Please be okay._

Through the chaos the drum had died, the silence was empty, there were no sounds, no screams, no battle fray.

 _Sasuke, please be okay._

Quiver full, lungs aching she shot like an arrow aimed at the heart.

* * *

The council meeting was supposed to be something that the heir of the Hawk Eyed Clan always oversaw. There the heir became familiar with the members of the council. These were elders from each family that branched from the Main House, the house with the purest Hawk Eyed Blood.

Among them were the respected and selected individuals from the families of the Village and at least one member of what had once been a strong farming guild, but now had been cut down to a handful of starving families trying to scrape the earth for left overs.

Hiashi was not pleased when he found himself sitting in the court yard in the evening with the mass of elders clad in their dark robes peering at him. Their faces were stiff despite the warming tea in their wrinkled gnarled hands. Even with his lack of imagination, he had to admit they looked like eerie carrion birds. What, he wondered, were they eyeing as a soon to be carcass for their picking?

"Where is the heiress?" He inquired before the scribe beside him could begin blathering about points of discussion to fill the air with words.

The elders shifted, and like dominoes every single one of them moved to express curiosity of their own, hesitation in some and stubbornness for the last few. Hiashi fixed his pale eyes on the woman and man at the end of the semi circle, facing each other, looking not at him but at the ground.

"We thought it best that Hanabi be asked to join us after we had a chance to discuss the issue of her current activities."

This came from the same gray haired woman that had so blatantly fought against suspending the hunt for the star in favor of retrieving Hinata. Her pale milky eyes had a distant quality, for their sight so blessed in her youth had faded to near blindness when a fever had taken her to deaths door only years ago.

It was ironic that Hinata with her knowledge of the woods and their abundance had been the one to drag her back from the eternal sleep. Gratitude obviously did not sweeten her to the heiress.

"The issue of her activities." Hiashi murmured, putting the smooth wooden cup in his hand steaming and fragrant with herbs on the ground beside his carefully folded knees. The displeasure in his tone could not be mistaken for anything else.

"You must admit that, like our last heiress, Hanabi has taken to hiding in the _cellar_ rather than attending to the duties of her rank." The elder woman continued and as she turned in the direction of Hiashi her gray hair shone a brilliant silver in Solatta's pink and orange dusk hues. "The eccentricity of Hinata nearly cost Hanabi her life, nearly left this clan without heirs, and it most certainly cost us the angel bone we so desperately need to keep the Rot from gaining ground into the Valley."

Nods from a handful of the carrion birds sitting around accompanied her speech. Only a select few stared determinedly at Hiashi, their jaws set, their eyes flashing with displeasure he too was feeling.

Hiashi's gaze was sharp, and rapid. He didn't have to count to know that those looking at him with loyalty in their gaze were few in number compared to those in agreement with the merciless oration.

It took all the effort Hiashi had to stare determinedly at the elder, at her thin lips lined with age, at her familiar leathery skin and set jaw. Elegance in age hinted at riveting beauty in youth.

Hiashi knew she had been wonderfully beautiful of course, having stared at that face from the moment of his birth.

"Your granddaughter's eccentricity is the reason Hanabi was returned to us with a beating heart and not drowned in her own blood." His pale eyes lingered, watching as his mother clenched her jaw, as her brow flickered with irritation. "It is Hinata's eccentricity that reduced the disaster of the hunt to manageable size."

"Manageable size?" This was coming from the man across from the Dowager Hawk, his blue dyed sash around the black robe of elder signifying him as one of the Village appointed representatives. "Two of our young pure bloods are gone, there is no angel bone to replenish our soils, the Rot encroaches ever nearer- four of five shadows have left the Main House, perhaps never to return. With a task to solicit, of all creatures, the Scaled Worm." He let out an indignant breath then, turning to look at Hiashi with disdain. "We need the star's body. We need it to live."

"For how long?"

Hiashi let his mouth close, having the words taken right off his tongue and said by none other than the oldest of the elders, eyes half closed and wrinkled fingers loosely grasping the tea before him.

"What?" The snap from the Dowager Hawk was impatient as it ever was when Hiashi's father-in-law spoke. "What do you mean? For as long as we possibly can- until another star falls- until-"

"And have you looked to the heavens?" The old man's trembling wrinkled face lifted, gazing with white eyes towards the reddish gold hues swirling with the indigos and blues of coming night. "Have you counted the stars, Dowager Hawk? How many years have we waited for one star to fall? What shall we do if the years between their presence grow longer until our children's children no longer know to slay the angels? What shall our people do when the Rot comes too fast and there is no star to murder?"

" _Murder_?" The dowager's snap was bitter. "Murder is what we commit if we do not act to protect our people . The fate of our children's children and their forgetting cannot happen if we do nothing _now._ There will be no time for forgetting if we all starve to death."

"Oh I doubt I will be starving." The old man's grunt was mildly amused, his needling tone hard to ignore. "I'm old as time, you're just young enough perchance you'll feel those first pangs of hunger before your luck runs out though, so I see why you worry."

Before the Dowager could gather herself into a fit of rage Hiashi cut in.

"Hanabi's time spent in the _cellar_ \- as was so eloquently put- is in the service of our people. Her sister's wisdom saved her life, and Hanabi is attempting to do what an eccentric but wise heiress did before herself. She is trying to learn."

"There is no time for learning." The Dowager was suddenly pushing herself to her feet, the tightness of her jaw visible even through the leathery skin of her cheek. "There is only surviving. She must stop this nonsense. She must focus on a plan to retrieve the star we require to survive. Or I will call for a vote."

This was followed by a silence so thick the buzzing whisper of the dragonmoth lamps being woken throughout the Hawk Eyed Villa seemed loud. Hiashi stared, pearl eyes wide as he took in his mother's strong ancient body standing like a battlement on the other side of the court yard.

"What?"

Murmurs broke then, whispers as the elders turned to each other, nervously, panicking, some smugly exchanging words.

"If the ruling family is unable to manage the safety and well being of the Valley, the council is fit to call for a vote of confidence- and if you and your family are found wanting..." she drifted off then, looking at her son steadily, letting him fill in the gap of her unfinished sentence.

"I doubt there will be another family capable of finding a solution to our current predicament." Hiashi finally managed, grinding the words out between his teeth. "The Rot is unstoppable. Even the angel bone is but a loosely tied bandage over a gaping wound."

The dowager smiled. "Well, perhaps at the very least there might be a family with sons or daughters capable of bringing down the star. Willing an attempt to apply that _loose bandage_ , since it appears your children cannot, or will not."

"This foolishness..." The old man's shaky murmur had lost any hint of mirth. "This foolishness will haunt you, Dowager. It will follow you to your grave."

"We shall see." The dowager murmured, and with an incline of her head hardly visible began a brisk walk towards the gates leading to the village. Behind her by half a step the village elder ran to keep up.

Sighing heavily, with the whispers of the rest of the council buzzing like flies Hiashi turned to his father in law, peering at him from beneath bushy white brows.

"I apologize in advance, dear son. But I have to admit to you truly, there is nothing I thank the heavens above more for, than the fact that your daughters take after your wife and not your mother."

Hiashi sighed deeply as well, catching the movement of Hanabi's shape on the verandah, her arms full of books, her mouth set in consternation.

"I'm afraid it was only the eldest that followed that blood line." He admitted softly then, watching a familiar iron core shifting within his youngest daughter's eyes as she set her jaw in determination. "The truth is, perhaps my mother doesn't realize that. She has never faced someone like herself before."

"Oh?" His father in law followed his gaze, peering intently through weak eyes at his granddaughter in the distance before she turned and disappeared into the darkness of the Main House, followed closely by her shadow.

"You think Hanabi has the grit to put someone like the Dowager Hawk in her appointed place?"

"Yes." Hiashi nodded. "Unlike my mother... her steel has been tempered by gentleness into a sharper edge."

"Once upon a time everyone's heart beats with gentleness." There was scolding in the elder's tone then, glancing at his son in law as he began to stand. "Your mother, like every sentient being has been taught to be who she is by the life she has led." Smiling a little he sighed. "If she thinks being hard is the way to survive then perhaps life has been equally hard to her... Once you too would have been considered...stony."

"Stony." Hiashi whispered, remembering his wife and her hesitant smiles, her nervous fumbling fingers as the marriage contract between their two families was signed. She had been afraid of him, afraid of his silence.

"My point is," the elder waved a hand, moving away slowly at his crawling turtle's pace. "Have compassion for your mother... it is compassion that thawed your heart to my daughter. Perhaps compassion can be effective again."

Hiashi watched him go, a frown deeply ingrained into his face that communicated something of the doubt he felt within his heart. Where his mother was concerned it seemed almost that compassion had the opposite effect in turning her determination to fury and her disdain to hatred.

For her, compassion meant pity and pity meant weakness. And weakness was a luxury those facing the extinction of life on their land could not afford.

* * *

The fire was spluttering and dying far below in the clearing, it's shifting flames battered by the pounding of his wings and the hurricane they created. The force of the wind ripping through the pines swayed the Rot Clan on their tall perches, sending pine needles and forest debris swirling through the clearing in painful stabbing whirls of wind and power.

Pulsing through the air, between the molecules of oxygen the magic from within him throbbed and ached, sparking and snapping. White hot and electric blue flashes of his anger glittered in the dim light, like stars, like deadly contained bits of lightning.

Like hatred.

"What a mistake you have made." The metallic voice that escaped his mouth pulsed with the power of the heavens, his eyes flickering black and red as fiery coals. "To be wise enough to desire the ichor of my veins, to be foolish enough to try and take it."

The men shifted and swayed, no longer still, no longer quiet. Their bodies shivered, their limbs twitching with energy that was borderline terror, frenzy, insanity. Wide open eyes flashed white around their iris, and the glare of snarling teeth through their roan red smeared faces made them look primal and animalistic.

Bubbling and treacherous as simmering poison the war cry began from one throat and then another, until their chorus of ululating wails fluttered through the pounding of Sasuke's wings and the rhythmic hypnotism of the drum beat, rising and rising into a crescendo of high pitched cries.

Sasuke's gaze slid from face to face, not counting but assessing the damage he would have to do. Bodies would bleed, necks would crack, hearts would explode. The snarl on his face was steadily less human, the hatred that tinged his wings black sharpening the edges until each flap cleaved the air as a whetted blade.

"I give you one last chance to retreat."

In his heart, in his mind, he almost prayed they would not.

And then- as abruptly as their warbled cries began they vanished, silence erupted between the end of one drum beat to the next. In that stillness Sasuke's body tensed, watching as the muscles of dozens of men coiled with power. Teeth bared, spears raised they launched from their perches aiming for the star that floated among them.

It was a massacre.

Ebony black feathers flashed, the blood sprayed and the bodies fell. Dark ribbons of crimson splattered the pine trees as Sasuke's powerful body swept the hordes coming at him in careless swipes of his giant wings.

His heart was galloping with the strain, and although he was panting the smirk on his face had not changed. The darkness in his eyes gave way to the blazing red of his magic rising within his veins.

There were many, and like insects they jumped one after the other to their deaths, holding on to his wings only to be slayed to ribbons as he shook them off roughly, a torrent of bodies crashing to the earth below him.

But, by the Veil, they were many. Their weight pulled on him and cursing he struggled as more and more of them slammed into his body, his arms, his chest, his back, not- he realized wielding those staffs in any particular fashion for harming, but trying to lock his limbs.

Growling like the monster he was, the spear shafts snapped against the power of his magic and muscles, splintering to chaos even as his strange black wings still unfamiliar, suddenly heavy laden with bloody whimpering opponents failed him under the strain.

Cursing he drew in a breath, his eyes snatching up to the pines above, poking at the black of the heavens, only three stars visible in the navy expanse above.

The unfamiliar feeling of his innards being left behind as he fell, as the world pulled him viciously down with no intention of allowing him the gentleness of a flared wing landing shot panic through his stomach and clenching his teeth gasped in a breath.

The air was knocked clean out of his lungs at the slam of impact. Coughing for a moment, wincing as he shoved bodies off and struggled to his feet he growled. Snarling he threw an elbow into a spear wielding shadow, grunting in satisfaction at the crack of a nose beneath the mighty weight of his blow.

"We were told you would be arrogant."

Eyes flashing, wings flaring out like a bird of prey to dislodge any attempts to hold him Sasuke turned, trying to find the voice that shouted the words. Kicking backwards hard into a knee cap, he listened to the shatter of the leg of, the shriek of pain satisfactory in the chaos.

"We were told you would offer mercy first."

Growling now, ears straining to hear over the grunts of dying men, over the crackling heat of his magic Sasuke spun yet again, red gaze flashing from face to face, wings shivering as they crashed into handfuls of attackers.

"You should not underestimate the desperate, Fallen One."

He caught sight of him in the shadows, a black shape that did not move where all the other bodies seemed to writhe and flail with murderous intent, spears spinning in hands, limbs running to destroy him.

This shadow stood just outside of the flickering dying light of the fire, his face hidden in the shade of the pine trees, hands folded neatly behind his back, a composed and thoughtful stance for someone covered in Rot. Every nerve in Sasuke's body flared with intuition, knowing without a doubt that the threat hid there, in the shadows, in that smirking half visible face.

And then the pain shot through him.

The explosion of agony did not build slowly. It was not and then was. From darkness to light, from joy to despair there was the moon and the trees and the smell of earth and Rot and then there was nothing, just the blinding hell of something tearing at his neck, destroying him, consuming him.

It was the first time that fear had tinged his thoughts. More agonizing than the pain, more terrible than the wound spilling silver down his shoulder and back. Fear.

 _...I cannot die here..._

The world went silent, sound muted, the edges of everything dulled to a smudged outlines and gasping for air his hand flew to his neck where one of the dozens of nameless shifting Rot Clan had stabbed him.

Blood pumped through his body sluggishly, loudly, the only thing to make a sound. No one touched him as he half collapsed to his knees, blinking through the sudden sweat and confusion that overwhelmed his mind.

His fingers fumbled, trembling as they gripped the thing that was sunk so deep into his neck, feeling the smooth hard curve, the jagged unfamiliar top.

The shadow from within the trees was speaking again, his lips moving although no sound could reach him now, not with the agony of the wound burning his ear drums, pulsing with each pump of his heart.

The magic in the air so potent and crackling a moment before flickered and like miniature vacuums throughout the space blinked out, leaving nothing but the normalcy of defeat in it's wake.

Panic, for the first time since arriving at the Veil tsunami-ed through him and chest heaving for air he gripped the offending weapon lodged in his body.

 _This... this can't be happening..._

Out there somewhere Hinata was waiting, her pale eyes searching the dark for his presence. What would they do to her, if he did not...

Tongue dry, he winced, listening as sound trembled and pulsed into his ears and the man's voice was suddenly clear in uncertain fits and starts.

"...that we should have a chance to defeat a Star is no small honor. I am pleased to see that our informant was indeed correct."

Just touching the thing at his neck sent blazing hot shards through his whole body. Like a web whatever they had pierced him with seemed to be spreading, coursing as wildfire through dry grass. Poison? What kind of foul magic was this?

"To show you the respect deserved of a being celestial, I will make the final strike."

Steps.

His ears listened, hearing too much and too little. The scrape of feet on the pine needle carpet, the crunch of twigs and leaves as the would-be murderer approached, the pound of his blood through his veins in protest.

Mouth dry, confusion tangling his thoughts he winced up, his wings slumped in a mess of black razor sharpness beside him, reflecting the light from the dying embers of the fire he had shared with Hinata that night.

 _Hinata._

"Would I could slice the head from your shoulders, but... we cannot waste the blood within your flesh. Forgive me that your death will not be clean as I would have desired to perform for you. Know at least, that your executioner is Jirobo."

This voice, so sick and tangled, so dry and choked made Sasuke's clenched jaw ache with distaste. With difficulty he raised his head, glaring into a face hidden behind the crusted mud, the tangle of hair, the shadows of the night. He was a giant of a man, and if it weren't for the fact that like all the Rot Clan he was closer to starving than strength Sasuke would have found his menacing size impressive. Flexing his dirty broad hands he reached forward, and the intention to twist his neck to bring Sasuke's demise was clear.

"Sitting on the sidelines until the battle is won, letting your men die before entering the fray. Do not delude yourself with words like forgiveness, and honor. Strike me down a coward, if you can and be done with it."

His blazing red gaze flickered between ebony and scarlet, his magic fighting the agony of his wound, pulsing to regain it's footing, fury fueling the fight.

"I warn you though. Strike true." His snarl left no room for confusion on his intent, "If you do not kill me, it will be the last thing you attempt."

Jirobo stared back, a twist of his lips allowing one deadly smile.

"Sasuke!"

Eyes wide Sasuke turned, his wings lifting at the sound of her voice, and before he could find her in the dark an arrow hissed.

To see him on his knees, the silver dripping down his chest, the white ivory point protruding from his neck left no room for thinking, for considering.

Panting from her full on sprint back towards the fight she drew, breathed in, and before releasing felt magic unlock within her, a shimmering gold heat sparkling along the already blood stained shaft of the used arrow.

His name left her mouth with more panic than she would have thought possible, and his face so pale in the moonlight turned to her, disarming in it's disbelief.

With a grunt her arrow flew, flashing gold with the magic woven around it and as it cut the air it's deadly song ripped through the clearing, right before it shattered into Jirobo's shocked face, sending him crumbling backwards as the projectile lodged itself perfectly through his eye.

Before he had even hit the ground Sasuke had ripped what looked like a giant fang from his neck, growling as the pain tore through him from the effort.

A call rang out, panicked and high pitched and primal from another of the Rot Clan, just as the first touch of Sasuke's magic returned, thickening the air to choking.

Furious and now mad with the agony from his neck Sasuke spun, his wings flashing through the dark, feathers flying in a wide deadly spray of razor.

Panting and breathless Hinata threw herself behind a trunk, holding her bow tightly to her chest, her hand on Amaterasu's head to keep him still and out of harms way. Eyes closed she listened to the sounds of dying permeating the sudden stillness of the wood.

A voice, familiar from her encounter so recent in the mist ripped past her as a handful of them made their escape, launching from tree to tree above her.

"The fang! Did it not work?"

"The poison did not spread! The markings did not rise on his flesh!"

The fading sound of their voices made her shiver and still struggling to calm her raging heart she peered around the tree, her hands white knuckle tight around her bow.

She had sprinted, run as fast as her legs could carry her. Sweat and tears were on her face, her cheeks red with the blood pumping just beneath the surface. Grabbing a hold of a tree she winced to see the wide arc of a mud painted body slamming into the branches of a red pine. The sight reminded her eerily of the hound pig he had told her to eat shortly after taking her from her sister's side.

Hand to her chest she watched as the stillness of the wood resumed, and shakily he straightened, rotating the shoulder coated in the silver of his blood, his gasps audible in the quiet. Still struggling for air herself, Hinata let out a sound, half sigh half moan of relief and sighing deeply, let her knees buckle beneath her.

"...y...you're alive." Beside her Amaterasu keened worriedly, nuzzling his black snout beneath Hinata's shaking hand.

Bristling still from the battle Sasuke let out a heavy breath, eyes snapping from the body littered ground to her wide eyes staring at him. Ripping his gaze away he withdrew his wings, making her wince the expression so unreadable on her face off at the sound of the feathers grating.

"Yes. I apologize for the disappointment." It had been a close call however, and the realization that he had let his arrogance get to his head and nearly cost him everything was loosening his tongue more than any spirit or fermented brew could have a human. Fear, for the first time truly felt while walking the Veil slithered beneath his skin just like the pain of the wound at his neck.

A sound escaped her, one which he had never heard before and ripping his gaze from one of the many bodies at his feet he paused, surprised by the frown so deeply ingrained on her face.

He frowned back, still easily triggered by any sign of animosity after so close a brush with death. Turning to face her fully he glared. "Did you think I wouldn't assume you were hoping for a different outcome?"

Hinata's recoil was worse than if he had struck her, although in an attempt to keep herself from bursting into sobs she scrambled to her feet, using the tree trunk to steady her hateful shaking.

Hiding her face behind her hair she patted Amaterasu's side. "We...we need to move, they may come back with more forces."

Surprise flooded his face like a blood stain, the startle so bad after the fight that he couldn't keep the expression at bay and he thanked any deity that would hear that she had her back to him. Unable, however to keep it out of his voice he called, almost petulantly. "You...were worried about me." It was not a question despite his disbelief and he wasn't sure he was expecting a reply, nor what he would do if he did receive one.

Nothing about Hinata was loud, but the tension across her shoulders was screaming something and still stunned he followed her rapid steps.

"Hinata."

"O-of course I was w-worried!"

Stunned, he stopped watching the coil of tension move from her shoulders to her arms, her hands, until she was trembling like summer snow buffeted by a strong wind. Beside her Amaterasu keened again, tail low, long pink tongue sliding on the back of Hinata's hand.

"I...I said I didn't want to kill you. I don't want anyone to kill you, I said..." she stopped and buried her face into the crook of her elbow only to pull away sharply.

"I'm... I'm crying, there's tears everywhere... Do you need them? Are you hurt?"

Head down she turned, moving towards him only to stop in surprise at his rapid steps back from her, his breath feeling shallow and uncanny in his chest.

A wariness had come over him at the thought of tasting her tears despite her willingness, despite his tiredness and the throbbing wound darkening his usually smooth skin a metallic sheen at his neck. The thought of holding her hurt in his mouth made him flinch, to taste the metallic acrid heat of pain was a repulsive thought.

Because it was obvious, his frightened sarcastic snap had hurt her.

"No. I'm fine. We should go." swallowing hard he dropped the hand holding the bruise to his side like it suddenly burned and her eyes narrowed there, then to his neck, rising to his face in confusion.

"You-"

"I said I'm fine."

A set in her jaw made him pause, and for the first time he considered the fact that he knew exactly what that meant having instigated this obstinate part of her before. A fleeting question shot through his mind like an arrow from her bow. Were there others in her life who made her clench her teeth and plow on stubbornly? Or was it only him?

Why did that matter anyway?

With hands still not fully in her control she was pulling at her lashes, gathering the diamond drops from her fingers to drop onto the basin of her palm. Stubbornly she extended her hand in offering.

Opening his mouth to refuse again he stopped, silenced by her flat unwavering voice, so small and resolute.

"This is why I am here. _This_ is why I abandoned everything I knew and loved, to trade myself and these tears for my sister. My new Calling is now your well being." Her pale eyes filled again, dew drops alighting on her lashes. "P-please don't insult me a second time."

He could hear the boom of his heart beat in his ears, echoing through his head even as he reached out and raised her palm to his lips. The drumming throb burned through his thoughts, silencing everything else. The expectation of brine and metal, rust and dislike on his taste buds made the flowery sweetness of her care a shock as it slid down his throat and began the familiar bubbling boil of his bones. Honey from a thousand blooms, the spice of passion and indignation, the full bodied undertone of resolution, her emotions were a tea blend too complex to truly decipher.

However, as she pulled away and began walking the pulsing of his blood in his ears was easier to understand. In the quiet caused by her flashing eyes one word throbbed with his pulse, terrifying him more than the death he had been unsure he would escape.

In time with his hitched breath the word whispered...

 _Lovesick, lovesick, lovesick._

* * *

Hanabi had been intent on learning all she could before the council meeting she had witnessed from the shadows. She had been determined with the same dogged stubbornness that made the Hawk Eyed Clan so proficient in their killing arts. Of all the pure blooded members of the family Konohamaru knew through and through that although many of them were as strong and intelligent and determined as the one to whom he had offered his life- it was Hanabi whose fire burned the most brightly.

And it flared to a blazing glory when faced with a battle of any sort. If there was anything her grandmother the Dowager Hawk could have done to set her granddaughter on a war path to her demise, insulting her family with questions about their ability to lead was the one sure fire way. He smiled, despite the situation to see her in her bedroom.

Minimalism was a thing prized by the Hawk Eyed. Service to their people required giving of everything, and the keeping of the least possible. The wide expanse of the room was mostly bare polished red wood floor, a mat thick with cotton and a patched but well made blanket of hemp. A low table sat in the middle of the room with two cushions on either side heavy laden with scrolls and books in various states of ancient fragility.

From the porch where the sliding doors had been opened the dawn rays of Solatta turned the sky to strawberries and cream and sitting in the one indulgence in her room Hanabi swung slowly. The hammock chair had been a gift from Neji and Hinata many years ago. Her sister had spent months weaving the fibrous bits of bark into ropes and then into an enormous mesh caccoon. A gap in the weaving allowed for entry into the nest-like inside padded soft with cushions in white cotton. Neji had collected the bark for nearly a year before they were able to complete it.

It had satisfied Hanabi's constant need for movement even when studying. Hinata and Neji often sat in her room with her, attempting to help her memorize the many plants and creatures of their Valley mountains. Hinata would lay on her back, one leg crossed over the other, her toes tangled in the woven pattern of the hammock. Hanabi sitting within it would scowl at diagrams and pictures of plans, soothed to silence and concentration by her sister's constant rocking.

She had never told her, but something about being gently rocked, with her sister's voice gently coaxing knowledge into her head had always made her think of a womb, of being safe, of being swayed with love.

Feeling the sting of longing for her sibling Hanabi shoved the heel of her palm into her pale eye, biting the inside of her cheek in her frustration. Konohamaru watched from the floor, his lap covered in several of the books, his eyes bleary from having worked through the night, stubbornly unwilling to leave his Opaque until she relinquished herself to sleep.

"Hanabi?"

Sighing deeply the girl looked up, fixing him with the intensity of her feeling. "I think I may loathe my grandmother, Konohamaru." She whispered, rubbing her collarbone and wondering at the tight pain that pulsed there. "I am afraid I am a sinful granddaughter."

Konohamaru sighed deeply as well, face softening. "I do not think it is easy to incur your wrath. It must be justly felt."

"Your bias is strong." Hanabi's smile was weak but the change in her face was instant. "However, I am appreciative."

Slowly, with many creaking joints and sore muscles she pulled herself from the hammock seat, peering out to the porch. History and myth, legends and unfounded whispers roiled through her mind. The books had things she had heard of before, sometimes the same, other times changed in minute details.

The one thing she had been looking for however did not arise, only stories she wished she could dismiss, more fairy tales than truthworthy history.

Except... some of what they said was true.

"Did... you have a moment to read the story of the Apostate?" Hanabi murmured, pressing a hand to her forehead to think as she relished the touch of dawn's light on her face.

Konohamaru watched her, dark against the brightness of the heavens beyond. An elegant shadow. He winced as thoughts of his own shadowy existence poked through his mind in painful stabs.

"Yes." He breathed. "I knew bits of it, not the entirety."

"Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha." Hanabi whispered, finally opening her eyes and looking once more at the rising Solatta. For a few hours the sun would be lonely in the heavens without it's sibling. Like the young star, Sasuke had been when left abandoned by his older treacherous perhaps mad brother.

Like herself, missing her sister so deeply.

"...did the star...say it's name?" Konohamaru finally dared after a long silence. Hanabi smiled, admiring his quick thinking, his ability to read her mind and ferret out what she could not articulate.

"No... but then, we were not exactly polite in introducing ourselves either."

"Then perhaps it is not..."

"Look at the Rot, Konohamaru." Hanabi whispered, cutting him off. "Come look at it."

Hesitantly her shadow rose, moving stiffly to stand beside her, looking out into the wide expanse of the Valley dark and muted beneath the shadows of the mountains. Patches, small in places, large in others were bare. The wet bubbling Rot was mostly on the other side of the mountains, encroaching to the edges of the basin they made around the flatlands.

But within the Valley itself, it was dryness that had taken bits of their home. Patches of dusty red soil lacking in nutrients, endlessly thirsty when watered, unable to quench itself with the rains. In those patches nothing grew. In those patches, once upon a time their vegetable fields had flourished.

"Our world is dying." Hanabi murmured. "Perhaps he is here to end it. Perhaps he is the Uchiha- the Vindicator."

A shiver slid down Konohamaru's back and jaw tight he turned from the sight of the beautiful dawn to his mistress, face carefully placid as he waited.

"My grandmother is right to be afraid, unfortunately. I hate to ever have her be right about anything but..." Hanabi smiled without humor, shrugging her shoulders. "...perhaps finding the star is the only thing I can do."

Surprise flooded Konohamaru's face then, unchecked as worry bloomed with it. "But... but Hanabi-" Fear at being left behind once more tore through his insides, wriggling like worms in the casing of his abdomen.

Hanabi finally turned her glowing gaze to him, features raw and unmasked in the flood of morning light. "You will come with me, won't you? One way or the other... that star has answers we need, whether in his blood, or in his mind."

Relief, so obvious it made her smile washed over him and closing his eyes he sighed.

"...I'm afraid its unlikely I would have stayed behind...even had you ordered me to."

"Hm." Hanabi grinned to hide her fear, to hide the terror that had haunted her every moment of being out in the wild where the beasts roamed hungry and the trees themselves seemed keen to betray her to her death. "Insubordinate and bold." she scolded mildly. "Good thing that's just how I like you."

Ignoring the flush of crimson that rose to Konohamaru's face at her words she turned, gathering up her reading material in steady hands, breathing in the smell of the pages that reminded her so much of her sister's arms.

"We best go inform the council we will be heading out to do their bidding." She mused. "The Dowager Hawk will likely be happy to hear I will soon be out there where beasts will likely slay me and leave room for her chosen heirs to take over the Clan."

"I intend to foil her plans by keeping you alive." Konohamaru grunted, a tinge of something that sounded dangerously like dislike piercing his voice. Surprised, for Konohamaru was anything but respectful Hanabi looked up, studying his face again intently.

"I am very glad to hear that."

* * *

The wound was refusing to close. Sasuke felt his bones ache, his breath hitch even as he marched on, determined to keep his body from showing the wariness in his stance, in his movement. Hesitantly he glanced once more at his shoulder, catching the seeping silver now staining the blue tunic he had thrown over himself.

Everything else had healed. The bruises had faded, the slashes from the bone tipped spears had been erased. Her tears had simmered within him, warm and pulsing with a comfort he could not deny.

But his shoulder blazed. Stubbornly he tried to keep his hand from reaching to press against the wound out of instinct, feeling again Hinata's unshakable gaze on his back, studying him.

They had been walking for most of the night, and with the glimmers of gray blue light filtering through the trees he realized dawn was on the way.

The sounds of the Rot Clan moving in the distance had been intermittent, never lasting longer than a few minutes as their hunt took them further and further from Sasuke's careful path.

Moving like the huntress she was Hinata left no trace of her step, her feet landing delicately on roots, on rocks, on moss where she could find it, skipping from step to step to leave nothing disturbed.

Beside her Amaterasu followed in his gangly loping walk, tongue out and sides panting gently in his tiredness.

Twisting slightly to look behind them Sasuke winced, and the flicker of pain fluttered over his face without his permission, making Hinata finally stop, frowning worriedly.

"Sasuke."

Turning away he continued, cursing himself and his weakness. Never would he have thought that something as minor as a mad pack of mud splattered men would cause so much damage. They had called him arrogant, well he could not disagree. It had truly been his arrogance that had placed him in such danger.

Not just him however.

Her hand on his shoulder blade suddenly had him turning to look at her, straining to keep his face clear, calm, uninterested. He could not however hide the sweat that glistened on his skin, or the soaked shoulder of his tunic at his neck.

"...Oh no." Hinata's pale eyes flickered over his features and gentle as a soft breath her fingers moved to his tunic neck, touching lightly where the silver blood refused to stop flowing. "Sasuke, why... why are my tears not helping this?"

He watched as she blinked rapidly, and knew instinctively she was trying to work up an emotion, anything to overwhelm her, to overflow her gaze for him and the simple action made his stomach tighten.

"I don't know." He admitted, turning brusquely away. "We must keep moving however. There's no time to stop. We're less than half a day from the forest edge."

Wide eyed Hinata watched as he took another step and swayed ever so slightly. Clenching her jaw she winced, her eyes alighting on his white palm pressing to a tree trunk to steady himself, his head bowed as he braced himself against something invisible to her powerful eyes.

"We... we have to stop. You need to stop."

"I said keep moving." Like her words were irritating he shoved from the tree and started again, moving slowly.

Hinata clenched her jaw again, mulling over the words inside her mouth, tasting them truly before deciding on releasing them.

"Sasuke... I..." She waited then, watching him pause, watching him turn with his features so carefully still she knew he was holding something back from showing.

"I'm not moving."

Amaterasu lay on his belly then, as though her words had been understood and happy to comply he settled. Sasuke's dark eyes were not amused, but then they glimmered with pain that was unmistakable now that she was looking for it.

"Your stubbornness is hardly an endearing character trait." He grunted then, unable to bring up the energy required to argue properly. Hinata blinked at him mildly, the healer in her already shoving the more timid and hesitant part of her mind beneath the roiling waves of worry that threatened to overwhelm her. Briskly she rolled up her sleeves, dumping her bag, bow and quiver on the ground by a tree trunk.

"I might say the same to you." She grumbled, missing the flicker of a smirk that flashed on his mouth. "P...please sit down."

"We are right out in the open."

"I suppose..." she frowned, unwilling to look at him as she rummaged through her bag absently. "...I suppose you're just... going to have to trust me to keep us safe then."

He hardly took much convincing, in three steps he had practically thrown himself to the ground near her things and using the trunk as a back rest he lay his head back, focusing on breathing the air clean and smelling of resin and moss, of pine needle oil and earth even as he tried to ignore the ever present pungent odor of the Rot wasteland so nearby.

Hinata observed him out of her periphery as she pulled out the last of her water reserves and some of the left over clean fabric from his modified tunics. Licking her lips mildly she settled on her knees before him.

"L...let me just look at it, yes?"

Shrugging absently Sasuke kept his eyes closed, his fingers loose straining not to jump when her warm hands fiddled with the neck of his tunic, her smell overwhelming him as she leaned over his frame.

He had been close to her many times, had slid his tongue over her face, had tasted her lashes, had wandered dangerously close to her mouth and been unaffected.

Yet sitting there in the silence he could feel the heat of her body inches from his, the slide of her hair over his arm and the smell of sweat and soap and earth that seemed to come off her clothes.

Frowning slightly he opened his eyes to see her studying the wound on his neck intently, her mouth pursed tightly making the fullness of her lips pout.

"It's only about two inches wide." She murmured in a voice that made him think she was not speaking to him but to herself. "But from looking at the fang I would say it went several inches deep."

The water from her small water skin flooded the wound and although he should have been looking at it to see the damage his eyes focused on her some more, watching the slight wince crinkle the corners of her gaze as she wiped at the entry point. There was nothing telling about the tear in the skin. There were no veins, no darkness, no bruising of the skin to suggest poison. And yet it refused to close, it obviously pained him.

Biting her lip hard Hinata finally lifted her gaze to him, startled to find herself so close. With a choked yelp she moved back, rubbing at her suddenly heated neck idly. "I... I can't see infection or poison. Yet it is not behaving like any wound I have seen you sustain." She pushed herself hurriedly to her feet, taking a deep drought of water with her back to him.

"You must need more starwater."

Sasuke stayed perfectly still, watching her hands flutter through the repacking of her bag, her long fingers shaking from time to time as she moved items around and surprising him withdrew the fang from within the pack.

It was a wicked thing, six inches long and thick as a bottle of wine at the top tapering to a pointed viscous looking point. It had been broken off a creature at an uneven angle and so the top was grooved and speckled.

Looking up at him Hinata extended the thing in her palm. "I have... never seen an animal big enough to house a tooth this big." she shook her head. "Have you?"

Sasuke almost snorted in amusement but sleep, an unfamiliar stranger to his mind, was tugging at his limbs. Eyes half closed he shook his head. "So few things roam in heaven." He allowed. "Spirits mostly, nothing so...carnal."

Hinata's eyes remained on him for a long moment, their softening expression puzzling before she was pushing herself to her feet towards him again. "You are so tired."

She was not asking and if he was honest he was glad, the idea of using energy to answer was exhausting in itself.

"So stars do sleep." She murmured, and he forced his eyes to open then, fixing her with a look of mild consternation. Her smile however was unaffected, confusing in it's complexity.

"You should..." she hesitated then and he waited, straining to keep conscious even as she swallowed hard, her lashes fluttering rapidly until he could see the tinge of wetness at the edges.

There was something innately beautiful about her tears, he realized. They beaded and shimmered, they clung to her lashes like dew or traveled her face like meandering rivers.

"I'm not.. um... I'm not upset enough to..." she waved a hand at herself. "This is all I can do." she admitted finally and Sasuke's dark eyes remained on her steadily, tiredly.

Biting her lip and unsure of why she was so nervous she leaned forward, placing a hand on the trunk of the tree behind him to brace herself as she hovered near his mouth.

His fingers on her throat made her jump, warm and calloused they slid from the curve of her shoulder to her jaw, cupping her cheek as he brought her to him, his breath hot on her skin before the feel of his lips kissed the tears from her lashes.

In his mouth the sweetness of compassion and care exploded, firework flutters of irritation tangled with her amusement and below all that the soothing citrus flavor of companionship lingered, brightening everything.

"Sleep." Her whisper fluttered his bangs as she pulled away. "I'll stand guard."

He told himself the reason his heart had hammered so painfully before, confusing him with it's ache was that he had had many years since someone cared for him at all. That was why it was threatening to burst from his chest again now.

He told himself that he had anticipated nothing but violence and pain on the Veil, that her gentleness was such a shock his mind was confused by it.

He told himself he knew nothing about love, and so could simply not be love sick.

As he faded into darkness he put thoughts of her away, determined never to pick them back up again.

He told himself... he deserved no such joy.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	9. In Hell

_**Sorry I have been missing guys.**_

 _ **Thank you all so much for your lovely reviews... some seriously I have no words for, they're a ray of sunshine and I can't express my gratitude that you take the time to mention your views and suggestions. Forgive me that I cannot always answer, just writing and editing this sometimes takes up all the spare time I have.**_

 _ **To say I am displeased with this chapter is a huge understatement. I found the wasteland so hateful. Putting myself there mentally I think made me a little anxious, so I feel my writing suffered. :( still, this chapter needed to be done so I could move past it.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

 ** _In Hell_**

His sleep had been troubled, his tense brows and anxious breathing keeping her awake through the night. When he woke, groggy and still dazed she had thought for the first time that he was young.

Much younger than she had thought. The never ending legends of her history books and mythology had placed him somewhere in the realm of the eternal and so she had always felt like she was before an elder. An ancient creature.

Something, more or less closer to a god than her own kind.

Still, sitting up with eyes heavy lidded with tiredness, wincing at the flash of discomfort from the healed wound she had wondered...

In the end they had gathered their things and started off, fighting through the tiredness to the edge of the wood. Drawing closer with each step to the overwhelming plumes of sulfuric acid that bubbled from the rot basins.

The wasteland was a patchwork quilt of powdery red dust and sink holes filled with a thick oily sludge that bubbled and popped releasing smells more putrid than the decay of flesh left in the sun, so acrid and oily it burned the inside of their noses and left a film of grease on their skin and hair.

Hinata and Sasuke had stared at the endless expanse of red that stretched before them in light of the rising suns. The dust and fumes made it turn a garish orange despite the blue sky. When Solatta passed the peak of the Scaled Worm it set the waste to shining. The greasy residue atop the bubbling mud winked in the light, a thousand cunning eyes with secret intent, blazing.

A voice whispered within Sasuke then, a voice that- if he was honest he had not heard in too many years. So long, that at first he was unsure of why he felt his stomach twist and turn, unaccustomed to hesitation. It was too close a feeling to fear.

A flicker of his dark gaze towards Hinata's tired little face made him balk, realizing with the abruptness of surprise that he was worried.

 _This is a mistake._

Amaterasu keened softly beside her, tail low, eyes squinting against the blast of the stinging smell and the wind tossing the red metallic tasting dirt into their faces.

She was stained and bloody from the battle. Dark circles lined her pale face and already her lips were cracked and dry. Although she had not been plump when they had met she had lost weight since being in his company and he highly doubted there would be anything in the flat endless chaos before them to supply her with a way to maintain what little reserves she had left.

"...it's... the only way, yes?" Her pale gaze, finally sensing his scrutiny despite his attempt to be subtle turned to him, brows drawn with worry.

"It's the only way to find... to find the Apostate?"

Turning back to the endless red landscape he let out a breath, tasting the dust on his tongue.

 _Itachi._

The dark eyes of his brother, held within the pale face he could not help but remember clearly flashed in his mind and a different feeling rose within him, a viscous dark thing. At his neck he felt the unsteady pulse of his wound like the response of a nerve to the emotion.

Whatever the voice of worry was, it was destroyed with the burning heat of his sudden furious hatred, a thing that no longer burned but simmered with the patience of endless dedication.

"Yes."

Her unwavering gaze was new, and he wondered only briefly at her gall. The shaky tremble of her fingers as she pushed her hair back telling of her fears despite this new confident stare.

Still, whatever fears caused the tremble were held within her mouth, like he held the bitterness of the Rot. In the end when he stepped forward she followed, and he found himself withholding a sigh of relief and a pang of anxiety at once.

* * *

The silence of the village during the hours before the sun rose was of great importance, something all the citizens within the walls respected deeply. Shikamaru had made it clear that their enemies took advantage of the light, the stillness, the tiredness of the guard at twilight and so the village always seemed to hold it's collective breath as the night deepened towards daylight.

At the guard towers, both exhausted and wary their warriors let their eyes flicker through the darkness of the wood and all the nightmares it could hold. They never trusted the whisper of the breeze, never allowing themselves to be lulled into complacency by the serenity of the twilight.

Sai sitting next to Kiba on the wood ground stared at the blue violet sky past the pointed trunks of the gate, contemplating the colors of the heavens before the sun rose. Their depth seemed to change, over time it flattened to a slate blue gray and then brightened with the sun.

"How is your master then?" Sai asked finally after another long awkward silence punctuated by the trilling cries of insects out on the other side of the gate. Kiba shifted slightly, careful not to wake the ball of fluff on his lap that was the body of Akamaru in a dead sleep, his side rising and falling rhythmically with soft puppy snores.

"I have no master." He replied tartly, flashing the oddly rude Sai a look of puzzlement. It was hard to pin down whether the pale young man was just out to pick a fight or perhaps simply awkward.

Looking at him made Kiba decide almost instantly that at least stupidity was not the cause of his rudeness. Cleverness flashed behind his eyes even if confusion was often paired with the wit.

"Oh? I thought that the man you and your friends called the Warren was your master." Sai continued crossing his long legs in front of him before batting away a neon green colored dragonmoth buzzing around his face lazily.

The halo of light shifted and drifted away with an indignant trill of it's wings.

"No. My Opaque, my..." Kiba paused, thinking of Hinata's kind face, her wide open smile, her soft voice. Calling her a mistress seemed incorrect, perhaps even disrespectful. He loved her, loved her as Shino loved her, with a selfless protective affection. She embodied everything they thought their clan needed. Compassion, determination, resilience.

Hope.

"Lady Hinata, right? That's what the Tenten girl called her." Sai supplied, and Kiba nodded slowly, feeling the aching twist of the name spoken out loud. "Lady Hinata." He whispered. "It is her I follow, and serve."

"So you're a slave."

Frowning at the grating words Kiba fixed Sai with a look, jaw clenched hard enough to feel the poke of his rather sharp incisors on his gums. "You have a way of saying things that beg for bruises. Were you dropped on your head as a child?"

Sai blinked, and then grinned. "No, but I was a slave once." He paused. "I did not think this would be an insult to you. My slavery taught me many things of use."

"I am not... a slave, per say." Kiba grumbled, unsure of how to continue. Sai's unnerving grin was not what he had expected to see on the face of someone who had been freed from unwilling slavery. "No one demanded I give my life. I give it freely, every day."

"Except she's not here." Sai mused, raising his eyes back to the dark sky. "She's out there looking at the stars far away. You must feel very untethered."

"Sai, remember how we talked about not saying things that were going to get your nose broken?" Shikamaru's voice suddenly called from the ground floor and his steps making the wood stairs creak made Kiba sigh with relief. He appeared on the second floor, hands in his pockets and face pinched.

Sai looked innocently at him. "Yes, I recall that conversation."

"Not enough to save yourself from a trip to Tsunade's then I suppose." Shikamaru grumbled, rubbing the back of his head tiredly. He fixed Kiba with a look. "I apologize."

"Oh. Did I say something that merited an apology?" Sai turned to Kiba, blinking. "I offer my apology as willingly as you went to slavery."

"He says he wasn't dropped on his head." Kiba grumbled, pushing himself to his feet with Akamaru soft and warm in his hands. "But I have my doubts."

"He wasn't. He had much worse." Shikamaru sighed, patting Sai on the shoulder. "Go on."

"If you say so." Sai paused, looking at Kiba one more time before catching Shikamaru's furtive shake of his head and sighing he strode down the stairs, face smooth and expressionless once more.

"Where is your friend?" Shikamaru finally inquired peering between the tall trunks to the forest beyond looking strangely silent and innocent. Kiba sighed. "Giving Lee a break so he can sleep. He won't rest unless someone is watching Tenten and Neji. They are still sleeping a lot. He worries."

"Hm." Shikamaru nodded, frowning a little at the dark of the forest. "Tsunade believes it is because so much of their reserves were used on the travel before the magic with the trees. She is not concerned about their recovery however , so neither should you be."

Kiba nodded. "I'm not. But I am concerned about how long we have been here."

"You wish to go after your mistress." Shikamaru kept his face pointed away. "I understand that."

Wincing at the title mistress Kiba stepped up beside him, looking out at the quiet woods.

"So... Sai was a ...slave?"

"So he says." Shikamaru nodded. "He has never spoken much about it, and sometimes I think it's because he can't, not because he does not want to." He winced. "Spell or trauma, I don't know, but something holds his tongue."

"Is that why... he..." Kiba waved a hand and shrugged, unsure how to word Sai's awkwardness. Shikamaru nodded, eyes dark filled with curiosity and worry. "Makes you wonder what happened to him to break him in such a way, does it not?"

Akamaru shivered in Kiba's hands, nuzzling with content noises into his master's skin. "Yes, it rather does."

The night wind whispered then and Shikamaru frowned, ripping his eyes from the fluff ball in Kiba's palms to the darkness of the wood, lips parting as a cold ripple of anticipation slid down his spine.

The wood, it's usual rustle and mechanic buzz of insect wings was uncharacteristically silent.

Opening his mouth to ask Kiba if he noticed something strange Shikamaru froze, hearing the first soft melodic tones of something beautiful and silky whispering through the night air.

Kiba's gaze lifted, looking with a frown at Shikamaru. "...is that..." he began, cocking his head in a slightly dog-like fashion. "...music?"

The sound continued, and uneasy Shikamaru moved towards the bell tower at the end of the gate, blinking hard to clear the sudden feeling of weight on his eyelids. "...something does not feel right."

He had hardly got those words out before his legs began to wobble and with eyes growing steadily harder to keep open he watched as Kiba stumbled, two, three steps before slamming to the railing with his back, blinking hard.

"What... is..." he began, slumping.

The music was as heady as strong perfume, although not loud it overpowered everything but Shikamaru's heart beat and with unsteady breaths he clung to the bell rope, fighting hard to ring the alarm.

The rope shivered in his grip and the bell whispered too quietly. Feeling the world fading to black, and his feet unsteady beneath him Shikamaru cursed inside himself, in the place where his mind was still intact.

With hands half numb he fell, gripping the rope and the pull of his body as he tumbled set the metal ringing.

Just as the darkness was eating at his vision he heard the calls from the villagers as the guard came to aid the keepers of the gate.

Satisfied that at the very least they knew, he slumped and let the black take him.

* * *

Thoughts of home haunted her every moment. Thoughts of the wells with crystal clear water, cool from the darkness of the earth. Mouthfuls of salty broths and succulent fruits. Even the crunch of the silkweed roots straight from the tree made it into her mind, inspiring hunger, inspiring thirst.

She tried as hard as she could to keep her feet moving, her eyes focused on the tracks left behind by Sasuke's continuous relentless pace. Sometimes the thought of her valley turning into the wasteland she wandered through made her fingers itch and a mad anxious panic turned her thoughts to her bow on her shoulder, the arrows in the quiver and the knife at the small of her back.

Sasuke's back before her was a target, easy to hit, in rapid succession surely her arrows would be victorious?

These insane treacherous thoughts made her more sick than the taste of mud in her mouth from the dust mixing with the thick saliva coating her tongue.

The heat and the sun and the endless walk in the light looped her thoughts in a hangman's noose around her. Shame at even thinking of attacking him ate her up through the day, only relieved at night by the turn of her viscous thoughts to herself. As dusk fell and she shivered violently in the sudden cold winds she ruminated on the idea of laying down, of breathing slowly until there was no breath in her lungs anymore. It was strange being frightened by her own mind, by her own lack of motivation.

"...it goes on forever."

Days, they had gone days without speaking. Her voice was a remnant of itself and again he wondered if he had made a mistake to bring her into the hellish endless plains.

The red dust spread so wide and far it felt exactly as she described, endless. Each step a torture, with only the mountain growing ever closer in the distance in too small increments.

Looking at her in the dark of the night with the stench of the bubbling mud yards away and the breeze throwing fistfuls of the metallic dust in their faces he fretted in silence, uncomfortable with the fear that perhaps she would not make it.

His blood although still helping he realized was not enough too late. Already a week into the journey and well past turning back. It did not heal the cracking of her lips, the crusting of her eyes and the painful dry cough that wracked through her body even in sleep while she shivered in the dark.

Amaterasu too had slimmed down, and his whining wail long stopped. He wandered next to his adoptive mother with his head and tail low, his large fan shaped ears floppy and limp on his giant wolfish head. He had stopped drooling. Sometimes, he did not even open his eyes as he trudged on.

It was hard to remember what it felt like to be anywhere but this endless desolate landscape.

"You are shaking." His reply did not address the fact that eternity stretched out before them, counted in endless steps among the reddish earth and wispy dry grasses that lined basins of bubbling heated mud. They could not light a fire for fear of the oily residue and the wispy plant life catching into an all consuming blaze. Although the rot spluttered and boiled in patches around them the temperature of the air dropped and the wind tore through their clothing and hair, snatching their warmth and life with each breath at night.

Hinata did not bother looking up at him. Eyes closed against the constant sandpaper onslaught of the dirt blasting her face she shivered again, arms tight around her knees, chin pressed hard to her forearms.

Behind her Amaterasu sat curled like a giant heater, attempting to keep the wind from knocking his new mother over from at least one angle. But like everything about the wasteland the wind had no direction, no purpose. It blustered and swirled it danced crazily in the dark and hissed back and forth. There was no knowing where it was coming from.

"...I don't understand why... the Rot people live here when the woods are just beyond." Her voice scratched along, quiet and hardly audible in the hiss of the breeze.

"Forget about them." Sasuke muttered, pushing himself to his feet. She was hardly a shadow in the darkness, the few stars that bothered to shine did not provide enough light to see by. A hunched little bundle of shivers was all he could make out in the dimness. Usually her eyes, reflective as a cat's in the dark were how he kept an eye on her in the night, but with the wind that had picked up force the further they stepped from the wood the more she seemed to keep her precious eyes closed against the sand blasting.

"...I slayed many...I doubt I will ever have the luxury to forget." Hinata's whisper reached him only as he settled beside her, shifting awkwardly for a moment to push Amaterasu back a bit. The horkney sighed, but did not argue like he would before and another pang of worry pulsed in his chest.

"Tch. Nonsense beliefs of a the Hawk Eyed." Sasuke grumbled, ignoring the thickness of his tongue, and the metallic taste of dust. "It was a battle, you did your part to stay alive."

The grate of his wings unfurling made Hinata finally open her eyes, and she watched as his shadow expanded, and his wings reached wide and shining. Carefully they stretched, and then cocooned around all three of them, blocking most of the wind and all of the sand. The relief was instant and her thankfulness so overwhelming she sat up, looking around in the dark of his razor sharp feathers before turning her thankful tearful eyes back to him.

Carefully he held Amaterasu's maw in his hand, long fingers stained red from their journey leaving powdery prints on the silk of the horkney's fur. "You did your part keeping me alive as well."

He had not spoken of it, not since his stunned voice had reached her ears the moment after the battle. Hinata studied him in the darkness and it occurred to him as he sat there with the horkney's tired face in his hand that she could probably see just as well in the dark as in the brightness of day. Keeping his face as still as possible he turned to her finally. "It's a pity that slaying them to help me haunts you."

She had not cried in days, had had no tears to shed with the numbness of just living overwhelming her. And as the tears welled she hesitated.

What would they taste like? In her chest thankfulness and misery, surprise and relief fought. And beneath it all, something else... something foreign, unnamed.

She blinked, feeling them condensing on her lashes. Every dusk like clockwork he sliced his hand, pressed her thirsty mouth to his skin, let himself be consumed. Guilty thoughts of needing that blood- the ichor as the Rot people had called it - for her Valley made swallowing more difficult every night.

Sniffing softly, she strained to keep from blinking, from wasting the one thing she could offer in return.

"...I...I'm crying."

He stilled completely, his hand having been tracing patterns on Amaterasu's face frozen by her words, and the invitation innately worked into the tone.

Tiredness had seeped into his bones, and although he was in better shape than both of his companions he couldn't help the rapid pulse of his blood at her offering.

"I did not think you could at this point." He admitted, aware he was putting off the inevitable touch of his mouth to her skin.

"I did not think so either but I- oh!" Hinata moved then, her body pushing closer to his. In the dark the feel of her hip bumping him and then her hand on his shoulder quickened his breath. "I...they will fall if you don't-"

The urgency in her voice made it easier, and taking her face in his hands he kissed her eyes, first one fluttering eyelid and then the other. The moisture was warm against his lips, exploding on his tongue in such brightness and freshness he pulled away instantly, glad that at least for him, her face was hidden in shadows.

In the silence that followed he listened to his heart beat, rushing in his chest as he bit his lip hard, straining to stay still. He counted breaths, listening to the wind beyond the cover of his wings, and to her silence, every muscle in his body a tightly wound band aching.

Soft, and sleepy from beside him Hinata's voice asked very much later, "...what did they taste like?"

Like sun warmed strawberries fresh off a stem, dew drops condensing on mint leaves, the pop of cherries red and succulent and just before becoming overripe.

The only thing he could think to call it was affection.

It was not his way to lie. But to tell truth had also never scared him before.

"...I don't know." He mumbled it so long after her question he wasn't sure she heard, and he couldn't decide if that was better or worse.

* * *

It was entirely too soon for the Warren to be using his magic, too soon after nearly killing himself usurping the forest for his purposes and making it violent when all it wanted was life. Still, being in leadership forced one to make hard miserable choices and Tsunade had become rather accustomed to that.

The music was coming from over the wall, and when it finally stopped she had had to take the Hawk Eyed troupe with her- none of them were willing to stay behind knowing that their comrade had been at the gate.

All the better, she was going to need the Warren's prowess.

Never before had the Rot Clan attacked with magic. Their main source of power came from numbers, sheer numbers. It baffled that there were so many. They fell like flies at every battle and yet it seemed that they had resources of men and women to fight that were without limits.

Tsunade shuddered at the prospect of having such a large population and nothing stable to feed them with.

"Is it the Rot Clan you mentioned before?" Neji's voice was a whisper. After waking he and his shadows had done nothing but murmur together in his rooms, thankful for the assistance of the village but anxious to move on after his cousin when Tsunade had admitted her brief visit.

Shikamaru had insisted they keep their guess that the Rot Clan was after the heiress of the Hawk Eyed from their visitors. It had only taken one conversation with the still weak Warren for Tsunade to agree.

They were all on a suicide quest, their aim to capture the star, to rescue the heiress, to supplicate to the Scaled Worm should their trail grow cold. There were few objectives Tsunade had heard that had such high chances of death in the attempt.

She hardly needed to add a run in with the Rot Clan out alone in the woods to the list. Or at least, she had thought she could eliminate that possibility. Now however with what she assumed was them attacking, she had obviously been wrong.

"Yes. Or at least... if it's not them then we're in trouble. Our village and their Clan are the last two groups in these lands. Before there were villages further past what is now the waste, on the mountains and in the pine forests but with the Rot depleting all the food..."

"So it's them, or an unknown." Tenten was walking at Neji's elbow. Her status as shadow suited her well, there was never a moment she was further from him than a few inches and Tsunade wondered at the fealty. It was a strange custom they had in the Valley and she had always thought in her mind that slavery regardless of it's cause was never something she could approve of.

Strangely enough, this hardly looked like slavery, more like... love.

Around them the village bustled, men and women stood ready at arms, swords strapped to hips and backs. Arrows and bows in shaking frightened hands. Lee glanced at their strained pale faces in the torch lights, wincing against the flickering flames he and his comrades could not get used to and sighed.

"These people are filled with fear."

"Terrified." Tsunade admitted easily, approaching the hill leading to the gate with trepidation, her eyes narrowed. The crumpled forms of the first crew of soldiers to rush towards the gate at the sound of the bell lay sprawled on the path. She stopped well away, hopeful that they would be too far from the sound of the music that caused the sudden involuntary sleep.

"We have had too many run ins with the Rot Clan. They are desperate, they are hungry. Their children starve, their people die of illness." She shuddered. "To tell the truth I believe the Rot they live in has started to drive them mad... they move strangely, act strangely." With a sigh she squinted at the gate. "My people are right to be afraid, we are only a fraction of our village left, everyone else has fallen to their bone spears."

A stench of decay and dead things wafted through the night breeze and Tenten gasped, slamming a hand over her face as Neji and Lee recoiled. The smell was familiar, since it had been slicing into the mountains of their Valley every year.

"Rot." Lee grunted. "Here?"

"It's on them." Tsunade whispered again. "On their bodies. They're covered in it."

"What do you need?" Neji finally asked, glancing at the blonde chancellor. The woman didn't grace him with a look, behind her Sai and Ino stood at the ready, listening. The rest of their forces itched to head into the dark shadow of the gate to check on their captain who had just relieved Sai from duty and their new but appreciated comrade Kiba.

"I need a shield." Tsunade muttered. "I need you to shield me as we move forward so I can get our men out of there, and then to see what they want. No one here wields the kind of magic you possess. If you managed to get the trees to fight for you... a shield should be manageable even now."

"He is still recovering-" Tenten began and stopped at Neji's swift glance.

"You have my assistance." He stepped forward beside the healer, fingers moving through the unlocking mechanisms of a spell.

"To sustain this while moving requires concentration." He murmured softly. "If you need my assistance to carry them I will have to drop the shield."

"I can carry them." Tsunade smirked. "Keep the shield up to negate the music from the flute if it begins and we will manage."

Tsunade was accustomed to doing the impossible. She could reset limbs too broken, heal wounds too bloody, sow skin too shredded. When things could not be done by hand her energy and magic flared. The long and arduous training she had undertaken matched with reserves gifted through her family line providing power most could only dream of. Legend said someone somewhere in her ancestry had been taken in as a lover to a demon in exchange for the power of hell.

And the truth was it smacked of truth when she thought of it. Still- come from hell or not her power mended. She didn't really care where it came from.

Softly, with the pulse of thickening air that accompanied all magic Neji closed his eyes, imagining the particles of light and air, wind and water in the night breeze. He watched them interlocking to chains that tightened and tightened around him and Tsunade in the darkness of his mind.

"Environ."

A gasp of energy set everyone squinting against the blast and the shield shimmered thickly around them. It was a pulsing throbbing thing and had he not been so rested it would have been impossible. It sank beneath their feet, a bubble not of glass but of water, shimmering and shifting as he focused and when solidified to crystal clear he opened his eyes, ignoring the surprising strain in his chest as his energy shifted restlessly, like using a muscle only just recently strained.

"Ready."

Together he and the Healer moved forward, Tsunade studying the smoothness of the shield, hearing her words echo back at her as they bounced off the smooth curved walls.

"Go to the second floor and there I can speak with them first, if they are willing. Perhaps if they cooperate the shield will not be required for as long."

"I can hold it." Neji replied, his monotone flat.

"Yes well, there's plenty of things I can do as well." Tsunade murmured interested in the movement of the shield as they headed up the stairs to the observation post where Shikamaru and Kiba lay sprawled. It shifted and dodged the wood of the railings and steps, molding around objects as they came close. "Yet you don't see me doing them unnecessarily."

Deciding to focus instead of argue Neji frowned, keeping his mouth shut looking over the gate at the clearing before the trees. For a moment his breath caught as a small girlish shape looked up at them from the smooth soil.

Then the clouds shifted against the shattered moon and she graced them with her light, shattering the hope of his cousin standing there.

The girl looked up at them with eyes flashing against the smeared browns of Rot and blood. The redness of her hair showed through the filth and at her feet a large boulder of a man lay splayed and unnaturally still.

Pointing at them with the flute that had so offensively rendered men unconscious with, she spat.

"Look at you cowards, hiding behind walls and shields." Her eyes squinted then, gazing at Neji with a glare he took like an arrow to the heart. "Hawk Eyed. You little vermin are everywhere of late."

"What do you want?" Tsunade snapped, watching as Neji's breath hitched and the shield fluctuated as though against a strong current.

"...we came seeking a healer." She growled. "But it appears our enemies have joined together to destroy us."

"A healer." Tsunade snapped, disregarding the girl's furious words. "Attacking my men and rendering them unconscious is hardly the way to-"

"They're fine. Would you have preferred a volley of arrows? They'll wake up rested and alert. Had we knocked we would have been slain." she pointed at Tsunade again. "We do what we must, just as you."

Tsunade's face puckered like dry fruit. "If you need a healer you must be desperate, and you must have lost to someone."

"A Hawk Eyed dog hit Jirobo with a magicked arrow." The snarl was viscous, and using the flute again she pointed at the body on the ground. "We have come from days away, carrying him and expecting his passing. The magic hums, it does not surrender him to death. She has cursed him to suffer forever." The girl spat then in the direction of Neji with precision. "Hawk Eyed scum."

A kick from her foot sent the body on the ground rolling onto it's back and Tsunade winced. It took much to get her reeling but the gruesome sight of an arrow through the eye had a way of making everyone squirm. Neji breathed out sharply, seeing the black fletching of the arrow's shaft, shining against the soft gold pulse of magic that seemed to beat slowly with the victim's blood.

"Hinata." Neji's shaking whisper was followed by the shiver of the shield again and Tsunade gripped his arm. "Focus. I need to get down there, you must come."

"They attacked her... they might have killed her." Neji's lips had gone white against his face, disappearing in the dim light of the moon. The shield shivered again against an invisible wind. "They might have-"

"It looks to me like they were beat rather soundly." Tsunade murmured, staring into his face in an effort to get the young man to see reason. "Your charge is not alone, if the star defeated two of the Hawk Eyed warriors trained specifically to slay him then the Rot Clan too must have fallen against his might..." Her eyes flickered back to the girl, whose hands were raised impatiently.

"Release him from the spell, healer. Send him to his death at last. Surely you will take great joy in ridding this Veil of one more of our kind."

Her eyes flickered to Neji beside her. "At the very least let the Hawk Eyed dog come down here and slice Jirobo's head off like a man. Set him free."

"You people." Tsunade grunted, turning around and heading back towards the gate with distaste. Neji followed close behind, jaw tight, glancing only briefly at Tenten, Lee and the others waiting at a distance, although calls from their voices rang as they watched Tsunade reach the gate's chains.

"I am going to open this thing, and we are going to look at that man, and you..." her eyes turned to Neji finally in the black of the gate's shadow. "You are going to put a shield around the entrance and let no one in until the gate is down if there is an attack. Although honestly... I don't think so."

Neji hesitated, straining to remain in control of his thoughts, his mind snapping from the energy and focus required to sustain the shield like balancing books on one's head and thinking of Hinata's magic lingering on that arrow, keeping her victim from death.

It was a torture that seemed unbelievable for someone like his cousin to contrive let alone execute and his heart raced, panic and fear, confusion, disbelief. They clamored inside him.

"Do you understand?" Tsunade frowned at him intently. "Do you agree? I need to look at that arrow. Perhaps they will tell me if she is still alive."

"Yes." Neji nodded, swallowing hard. "Yes, let us go."

With a glimmering shine of the stone placed on her forehead Tsunade nodded back and slammed her fist into the lock of the gate, setting the machinery to whirring rapidly, the snap of chains and the clunk of the trunks rising croaking in the quiet of the night.

Behind them the murmurs of her people rose in panicked hisses, the shift of swords pulling from scabbards and arrows being notched harmonizing with their worry.

"Don't any of you get me slain!" she snapped over her shoulder. "Hold your fire."

As the wood lifted higher and higher the girl came into view. Behind her shadowy figures shifted and watched, a dozen or more in the trees, hiding.

Tsunade paused within the safety of the village walls surveying the mountain of a man and then the girl.

"You must give me your word that there will be no ambush once I step outside."

The girl's returning grin was feral, all teeth and no mirth. "I am Tayuya of the Rot Clan." she slapped her chest hard, fixing them with a stern expression carved from stone. "I give my word, my men and I wish only to end his suffering- fool though he was." she kicked at Jirobo and Tsunade hissed her displeasure.

"Just let the pig die, that's all we ask."

"Unbelievable." Tsunade whispered furiously, stepping forward. Behind her Neji's shield expanded and grew, a bubble blowing up in a soft breeze until it glimmered wet and shining across the mouth of the gate.

Sai, Lee and Tenten were suddenly at his sides, hands hovering over weapons at the ready.

"Shikamaru would be very displeased to see Lady Tsunade out there alone." Sai whispered, watching as the blonde knelt next to the fallen Jirobo. "Very displeased." His placid face did not hide the flash of worry in his eyes.

"I doubt anyone is particularly pleased right now." Lee whispered.

Before them Tsunade knelt, keeping an eye on Tayuya uneasily before succumbing to her healing instincts and looking at the lumbering shape.

The man was filthy. Crusted blood, the remnant dried parts of his eye coagulating in the socket, the flesh smelling as bad as the crusted earth smeared over his body. The only thing that appeared clean was the arrow, despite the gore of destroyed flesh. It pulsed a soft rhythm that turned the shaft gold as the dragonmoths glowed, and then faded, humming softly with each beat.

The razor sharp fletching glistened black and deadly at the end and Tsunade studied it a moment before sliding her fingers along the wood, closing her eyes to feel the tangled knots and threading of magic that had been imbued into the arrow.

Tayuya and the others behind the shield watched in silence as Tsunade's forehead jewel glimmered, her hair dancing in the breeze of her magic as she prodded the spell, asking it to share it's secrets.

A flash of memory ripped through her, hard and painful like the arrow had pierced into it's victim.

 _Panic, frightened terror as a brute stood before the kneeling shape of black wings, smooth pale skin, defiant shoulders gazing up._

 _The arrow in her fingers, her heart in her throat._

 _So much death, so many dying._

 _Compassion. Mourning. Pain._

 _One thought, overwhelming all the others._

 _ **No more death.**_

 _The arrow flew, the magic roared._

Tsunade snatched her hand back from the shaft, blinking hard to clear the vision, stunned.

Tayuya frowned, shifting. "What?"

"...it..." Tsunade gasped, staring at the man, at his beating heart, at his breathing lungs, at his body that should surely be dead.

"It... it's keeping him alive."

"I told you- that White Eyed witch she-"

"No." Tsunade snapped, turning to look at the girl finally, her disgust sketched on her face clearly. "No. She aimed to keep him alive, she... she did it without knowing, without thinking. She didn't want anyone else to die. It was compassion not torture she had in mind."

Waving a hand at the breathing, unconscious man the blonde shoved herself to her feet. "How long ago did this happen?"

"A week... maybe more..." Tayuya shrugged. "We figured he lived because-"

"I can save him." Tsunade muttered, interrupting her. "...she must be alive if her spell is still working then. The girl?"

A snort of dislike left Tayuya's mouth. "Couldn't handle us taking what her Clan couldn't. She's with _him_ still. Too weak to take him down herself, too selfish to let our people have his blood and bones." Her eyes narrowed in the direction of Neji. "But they'll get theirs." The thin threat in her voice left no room for wondering what she meant.

Tsunade let out a breath. "...you would...go after the Hawk Eyed Clan? Over an arrow-?" she motioned to Jirobo but Tayuya made an impatient sound that had Sai and Lee jumping forward nervously.

"An arrow? No." Tayuya's breath was rapid, her frustration and hatred tangible in the air like the smell of the rot on her skin. "We bet everything on that star. It's blood was our salvation or our demise and she stopped us from getting our prize. Without it..." she swallowed, and her eyes fell on Jirobo.

"They hide in their damned Valley, they hoard and prosper while we all starve." She sniffed. "No more. If you save him, that's your choice." She turned then, moving towards the darkness where the other shades of her clan stood silent, watching, like monsters from nightmares deep.

"What?" Tsunade snapped. "You can't just leave him here!"

"We came to have him die, not live. He is too much a burden." Tayuya continued until the bracken rustled with her movement, and tucking her flute into a pouch hidden by the mud smeared on them she waved a hand in a circle over her head.

Instantly the bodies of the other Rot Clan vanished into the thicket.

Tsunade gaped after her, stunned. "You're going to leave him? He is not our problem!"

"Let the forest have him then." Tayuya snapped, fixing her with a look. "We did our job, his everlasting suffering is the fault of your allies." shooting a look past her at Neji she bared her teeth. "Take responsibility. Join us in the filth of the Veil. We are all of us monsters now."

Before Tsunade could say another word, she vanished into the trees and only the soft ululating cries through the canopy fading away echoed in the darkness.

Sighing heavily the blonde pressed a hand to her face, turning towards the others in time to see Neji's shield shiver and then disappear, releasing the pressure of magic in the air so that everyone took a deep breath.

His face was pale and Tsunade thought it might remain so indefinitely. He had of course heard.

"...they aim to attack our people?" Tenten's whisper shook like a leaf in the wind and beside her Lee gripped her hand hard.

Neji stood frozen, heart torn in two. In one direction the wasteland, the Rot, the star and his heiress, the first of his charges.

In the other, his home, his people and the little fire, the other piece of his life Calling.

No one needed to ask the obvious question, the one hanging in the air as thickly as magic, as the smell of the Rot and the coolness of the night air.

Who, in the end would the Warren choose?

* * *

 _Her mother's voice was probably the thing she recalled the most vividly. Her face faded, just the smooth heart shape of her chin, the delicate curve of her cheek, the darkness of her hair remained in her memory. Too many times she had been told that she looked just like her and so now, when the memories came her face was just a vague version of her own._

 _But her voice remained, soft and delicate, like the caress of white ethereal feathers on skin. Her lullabies bright and permanent within her mind._

 _"Loom loom for your cakes and, loom loom for your lips, loom loom for your belly, and loom loom sweet kiss." Her pale hands, lined from working in the woodland, from wielding blades for slaughter and digging in the earth would always tickle as she sang her silly songs, pressing her nose to Hinata's cheek and setting her to giggling._

 _"Loom loom for your water, so you drink in bliss."_

Amaterasu shifted behind her and Hinata's awareness snapped from the distant past where she had been small and loved and cared for to the thick thirsting pain of her tongue. The contrast with the comfort of her mother's arms and the hard dry ground beneath her highlighting the ache of her bones, the throb of her heart.

Sandpaper dry from head to foot, she winced. Lifting herself up on her elbow she surveyed the half light of the Rot plain. The patch of reddish dirt they had found was dry as long buried bones, the life long sucked from them and left powdery so that every movement of her body shifted clouds of red dust around her.

A few feet away Sasuke had his face turned towards the horizon, a muscle in his jaw tight. Behind her she could feel Amaterasu equally tense, looking in the same direction. His fan shaped ears and the tufts of fur along their tips fighting the growing pull of the breeze.

"...Sasuke?" her voice was a croaking ancient thing, dry as the dirt she sat on and with some effort she swallowed, tasting the dust on the roof of her tongue. It had been too long since her last drink. His blood although capable of healing and bringing forth the energy she needed was not enough to keep her eyes from crusting or her lips from cracking, not with days of sun exposure and endless sweaty walking.

The Rot plains were a death trap, it was a wonder that anyone had ever managed to reach the Scaled Worm. But then, the plains grew each year. Perhaps before it had only been a short distance. Bitterly Hinata envied those travelers of before, despite their destination. Two weeks on their path had put them frighteningly close to the growing mountains, but still there was no water.

His blood might keep her alive, but she thought that despite it, her thirst might drive her mad.

"Something comes." Sasuke's voice held all the tightness of anxiety in it and she followed his gaze to the far off horizon, noting with some wariness that her vision blurred and strained, unable to focus for a breath before finally crystallizing into the sharp reality of her usual sight.

The waste spread out wide and endless and dusty and then moving quickly were clouds of red, shifting and swarming, rising high into the orange sky until it hit the blue of clean air above the flat lands.

The sight stopped her heart cold.

"...oh Veil." Limbs scrambling she stared, fingers brushing against the cracking edges of her lips, the rough curve of her cheek.

On the ground still, holding himself with the same tension preceding a battle Sasuke turned his head towards her, away from the shifting thing that came ever closer. "What is it?"

"... a storm... wind, I think. But here..." she turned, looking around frantically. "There's nowhere to hide...we'll suffocate in that. We can't breathe in the dirt, it'll..." she wanted to scratch at her tongue with her nails, take the putrid flavor off her taste buds by force if not through drink. Panic fluttered weakly in her chest and she breathed in slowly, trying to calm herself.

Amaterasu made a noise of fear, a low whining wail that paired with his flattening ears and sinking tail attracted Sasuke's dark gaze quickly. Snapping his eyes to Hinata he murmured. "I may have to fly us above it." Rasu's fate was unsaid but Hinata stared, mouth open as she considered what he was suggesting.

"But...Rasu..."

"If I'm going to have to choose the beast or you-" He paused, suddenly unable to continue. Hinata was shaking her head however, her fingers moving to Amaterasu's head to pat the still silky smooth blackness of his coat.

"It could be hours, the storms spread miles..." her eyes turned back to the encroaching red powder, already so much closer, already defined against the blue of the sky. The panic continued feebly in her chest, unable to work up the real hyperventilating hysterics of near death. And she knew, in that moment that she was not in good shape, not if laying down and letting it come for her sounded almost like a relief.

Sasuke's dark eyes narrowed as he pushed himself to his feet. "There must be a crack in the ground then, they're everywhere. I can find one from the air."

Hinata blinked slowly at him then, uncertain, unmotivated. "I ... I don't know if-"

"Don't move." He muttered, turning away to hide the sudden shot of anxiety that filtered through his body at her words. Amaterasu keened softly again, his eyes looking back and forth between Sasuke and Hinata as though waiting for orders to allow him to run as fast as he could from the approaching danger.

The grate of Sasuke's wings pushing from his body and unfurling slowly made her wince as it always did, the nail on chalkboard scratch loud in the bleak silence before the slam of the storm on their heads.

"Sasuke, I don't think we will be able to..." She began but he ignored her, shoving off the ground with a flare of his wings that made the dusty ground dance in swirls of red powder. Gasping Hinata flung an arm over her eyes to protect them from the dirt, coughing hard as her hands fumbled for Rasu now wailing beside her, snorting hard to dislodge the dryness from his throat.

Above them Sasuke pushed, the pull of gravity fighting him for every inch of space between his body and the ground. The air was dead, a flat uninterested breeze whispering from the horizon smeared with the redness of the coming dust storm the only current to fight with the downward stroke of his massive black wings opaque in the deadness of the waste. He could feel the strain of holding himself above, his body aching with each pass of his wings and he knew like Hinata instinctively seemed to know, that flying would not allow them to escape, not in his state.

The suns were gone, hidden behind the rising wall of dust, it's sound now a hum like a million insects getting louder the higher he rose. Below Hinata and Rasu became dark ink blots on a splotchy canvas of browns and red and fetid ugly grays. Cracks spider webbed between the pulsing vats of decaying rot and patches of dry powdery crusts.

Eyes scanning Sasuke urged himself not to look at the storm again, coming faster and faster from the right as he swept his gaze over the flatlands. They had passed gaping holes so many times in the earth, skipping over them and sometimes having to walk around them altogether, too wide too jump, too deep to ignore the cold moist sewage smell that came from the dark.

One of those holes, so repulsive before was now a haven. If he could find one with a ledge and sequester Hinata and that damned beast in the darkness of a rocky hole they might survive the onslaught of the storm, just protected enough not to suffocate in the wash of red powder.

"Sasuke!" Her voice was so small, so weak as she yelled. There was not enough panic in her, not enough desire to live. He had known the wasteland would be hell for her, uncomfortable for him.

He had once again, underestimated the Veil and it's murderous nature.

A crack, finally came into view, not a hundred yards from them and with a breath he plummeted, tucking his wings tight to his body, allowing gravity to think it had it's victory as it dragged him down.

Hinata's eyes, so pale in her dirty tired face widened to large glimmering pearls as he flared his wings to land, straining against the sudden snap of wind to the muscles and razor sharp feathers of his limbs. Panting slightly he tossed her bow and quiver over his shoulder, moving fast in the direction of the crevice, grabbing her arm by the elbow to drag her sluggish body along.

"This way."

"It's too close." Straining to look over his grip on her arm Hinata trained her eyes on the swirling wall, finally feeling the sudden spike of adrenaline in her veins. It would be a horrible death. Feeling the dirt in her mouth, beneath her tongue, crunching between her teeth, dry and bitter and metal. It would scratch under her eyelids, and with no tears to shed there would be no relief until her lungs filled like an hourglass-

"Run." Sasuke's voice ripped through her sudden terror, her stumbling knees, her hyperventilation as the hiss of the wind and the buffeting slap of the storm tangled her hair in a mess around her face. "Run, damn it."

He was dragging her hard and with Amaterasu making snapping growling sounds beside her she did as she was told. Each panting breath a burning searing pain in her chest, already stinging with the dirt in the air the painful sandpaper friction of coarse soil scratching at her exposed skin.

It was louder than she had thought, a whirling maddening hiss as trillions of bitter molecules spun in the air, turning to miniature blades in the velocity of their swirling wind. Death through a thousand million cuts too small to see individually.

 _This..._ Hinata realized as they reached the gaping black mouth of a crack in the wasteland, _...this is what Hell must be like._

There was no time to ponder how to climb down, Sasuke was shoving her over the lip of the crevice, her fingers numb from fear fumbled to find hand holds, her feet kicking uselessly at the protruding wall, scrambling along miniature unreliable perches for a foothold.

"Go!" Sasuke's shout could hardly be heard over the incoming chaos, his face blurry as the red dust came in plumes around him, swirling through the darkness of his hair. "Hinata, go!"

Together they half climbed half fell several feet into the black, Hinata's shrieks as her fingers failed and then tangled themselves in the biting painful sharpness of the walls echoed in the sudden darkness as the suns were completely blocked and the storm came rushing in overhead.

A hole, about three feet wide and two feet tall gaped below and with Amaterasu's substantial weight under one arm Sasuke strained, pressed like a spider to the wall, thankful for the stabilizing tangle of his cramped wings on either side of him.

Heaving and cursing the beast under his breath he shunted the terrified horkney into the hole and with a painful whine the animal disappeared into the dark mouth. Hatefully Sasuke hoped if there was anything terrible in there it would eat the bothersome creature and give him warning to get himself and Hinata away.

After a moment however the continued keening frightened whimpers from the beast reassured him it was safe enough and blinking hard to clear his sand covered lashes he squinted in the dark.

Hinata was a thing grown from the rock. Her tunic and hair, her pale dirty face nothing but smoother more soft edges to the sharpness of the walls. She hugged the stone with her cheek pressed firmly to it's roughness, the only clear glowing part of her the two orbs of light like feline eyes gazing at him through slits of her eyelids.

"Get in there." He waved a hand in the direction of the shelf housing the horkney, unsure if she could hear him over the blasting scream of the storm raging just above them, raining dirt and sand down around them in abrasive buckets swirled by the winds.

Her eyes shifted, and only pulling from the rock half an inch she glanced in the direction he was gesturing, the disbelief that flashed over her features half hidden in the shadows. The hole was just a dark smear against the red and black roughness of the walls. Below it was a fall that seemed endless, a gaping mouth lined with the horrible broken teeth of stone ripped open.

Finding the hand holds and impossibly thin bits of stone willing to take his weight, Sasuke maneuvered until he was above her slightly, trying to block some of the thunderous spray of sand with his wings from buffeting her too roughly.

"Move, you can't stay here like a leech against the wall."

"I...I can't move..." Hinata shook her head, looking down at the black maw of the earth opening into an endless void below her feet. "It doesn't end, Sasuke! I... I can't..."

He stared, incredulous and slightly annoyed. She could climb trees, rock walls, fight clans of murderous people, jump from cliffs probably but this? Right now fear had to show it's face?

"Hinata, you have to move, you will die if you stay there."

A sob, the first he had ever heard from her escaped her mouth and eyes closed tightly she shoved her face hard against the rock, fingers knuckle white and painful to even look at. "Veil have mercy, Veil have mercy..." her whimpering gasps twisted and turned, ripped apart by the shriek of the storm and finally after a long breath she winced, her body shifting minutely in the direction he pointed out on the wall.

It was not too far, but the space tightened for a brief stretch as jagged stone pressed from either side of the crevice towards each other, about as trustworthy as thin ice and bottle necking the path towards the hole where Amaterasu's snout peeked out.

"This way." Carefully Sasuke reached down, bracing himself painfully against the rocks, with her trembling fingers in his he moved her hand, finding a groove for her to grip tightly.

Slowly, whimpering all the while she let him wide her hands, shifting her feet to follow. Inching closer to the mouth of the ledge where Amaterasu's nose peered out, worriedly keening in the dark.

"That... that doesn't look strong enough..." Hinata hesitated, her feet uncertain on the jagged edge he was instructing her to step on before reaching the edge of their hole to climb in. Above the storm was a battering ram against Sasuke's wings flared as wide as he could twist them in the small space, every shift of his shoulders setting spills of red sand and dirt water falling down on them.

"Step lightly, quickly, don't linger."

Breathless now himself he stretched his fingers, settling into a more comfortable position with his hips in line with her pinched frightened face looking down below.

"Hinata. Go." Impatient now he urged through gritted teeth. "Go."

He regretted his order instantly. The ledge proved untrustworthy, her feet instantly giving way and with a guttural cry she scratched at the wall, finding a handful of rock to cling to with her body hanging flat against the stone, feet scrambling for another step and finding nothing.

In two breaths he was there, braced between the tight bottle neck, in time to wrap his legs around her waist, the unwilling rock beneath her fingers crumbling away beneath her weight.

Grunting hard she held on, arms wrapped rightly around his torso, face pressed hard to his stomach as she wept. "I'm too heavy!"

"Be quiet!" He gasped, arms straining, legs so tightly wound around her waist he wasn't sure there would be any dislodging her even if he wanted to. Below the gaping deadly blackness of the earth breathed, like a beast with mouth open to take her from him.

Heart furious in his chest and more from fear than from the strain he winced, blinking more of the painful grating sand from his eyes as he strained. Above him his hold was agony, but at least stable, the stone a darker shade than the rest of the roan red powdery mess that was obviously so unreliable to climb. But his shoulder, the blasted wound that refused to fade ached through to his spine, and in his bones he knew there would be no holding this position for long.

She could feel the shift of his abdomen beneath her cheek as he strained moving to swing her, shoving her back hard against the wall just beneath the lip of the cave where Amaterasu sat whining incessantly now.

"Can you-" he began to ask but she was already scrambling to get in, finding finger holds fervently until she lay flat on her stomach inside, panting hard and in utter disbelief to be alive.

A few moments later had him tumbling in, his wings retracting hard and making the whine of metal on metal fill the small cramped space so that Hinata threw her hands around her head as Rasu flattened his own flappy velvet ears. With the wings no longer a barrier between the storm and the entry of the crevice however the dust and sand blasted in and the sudden howl of the wind stampeding above them sent a new wave of lung searing dust into their faces.

Coughing hard and still terrified Hinata curled into herself, thinking her sobs too quiet to be heard through the banshee wail of the tempest above.

When his arms dragged her to him and buried her face into his shoulder she welcomed it, breathing in the scent of his neck and skin, the familiar electric flicker of magic soothing compared to the sandpaper friction of the storm. Tangled together she sobbed and listened, to his heart beating, to her own stuttering and terrified pulse, to Amaterasu's whining fear, to the storm mad and mourning.

Until exhausted, sleep came for her, rendering her a limp rag doll in his arms.

Still, he hung on gently.

And above the storm continued to wail.

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


	10. Trophy

**_...Hi..._**

 ** _I offer a sincere apology for the long wait, and a lot of prayers that there won't be another random hiatus..._**

 ** _Much love to you all,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

 _"I want you to know something."_

 _Solatta and Luminatus were in their prime, stretching high and wide across the expanse of blue sky. Clouds shone bright in long strips of white and lavender, sprinkled with the peppery black of birds in flight._

 _Carefully she sat up on her elbows, feeling the spongy grasses beneath her bones. The feathery touch of their leafy spines upon her neck and shoulders tickled as she turned to him, wincing in the light._

 _He sat on the lime green and emerald blue hill with her, one arm slung across a knee in a relaxed slouch she had never before witnessed on his frame. Dark eyes peered at her from beneath equally dark lashes. In the shine of the twin suns at midday his skin was a luminous white, brighter than the clouds. His onyx dark hair reflected a dark blue sheen like the sky at midnight._

 _Behind him his wings flared enormous and ivory as the snowy caps of the mountains beyond her valley. Pure and scented with a pleasurable haze of perfume she could not recognize but loved instinctively. Clean and invigorating, like the first bright notes of lemon on the tongue or the first gulp of water after a hot summer run._

 _"Sasuke?" She blinked in the light, each careful snap of shadow as her lashes touched together changing the tone of light from the heavens, turning her vision of him looking at her intently from a bright summer white to a haze of deep blue, a film of soft indigo, a wash of red glow in turn._

 _"I want you to know something." He repeated, his voice shaking, and it was only then that she noticed the white knuckled terror of his fists clenching tight, his throat working to swallow as though something were caught there, threatening to choke him._

 _She waited, a pain starting in her chest like breathing in a lung full of tiny glass shards._

 _His dark eyes searched her face without shame, without reluctance, blatantly frightened, an expression she could not fathom on his features._

 _Finally his lips formed the words, and although the high pitched noise in her ears seemed to drown it, through the gasping agony burning in her lungs she read his lips, as stunned by what they said as she was by the pain._

Hinata, I am scared.

The wind was blowing soft. So soft that instead of turning the Rot sand to miniature knives with which to skin her the breeze shifted the powder in tiny swirls. Adorable tornadoes lacking bite flurried along beside her heavy lashes.

The silk touch of the wind through her tangled hair tickled her cheek and carefully she moved her fingers.

The pale digits shifted where they lay before her face and slowly she drew in a deep breath.

Regret was instant, a hot poker being shoved through her chest would have been easier to bear and wheezing forcefully she curled tighter about herself. A sound so unlike her voice escaped her throat. She could hardly fathom what was making such an awful dying wail until she realized it was her.

Sasuke's hands were suddenly gripping her shoulders, gathering her stiff pain filled limbs to his chest.

The world beyond the encircling atmosphere of his arms was quiet. The storm had wiped away the smog and fumes so that only the flat expanse of dead wasteland spread as far as the eye could see. It was a sea of orange and crimson stark against a blue sky clear of clouds. The two colors met with an sudden stern line on the horizon.

"Shss." Sasuke's hiss was less soothing and more of an order as he shifted her body in his lap. Her wheezing breath rankled through her chest cavity, like a glass bottle with pebbles shaken. "Breathe shallow, your lungs are still healing."

The coughing that followed his words stabbed. Groaning between snatched breaths she closed her eyes, dizziness and acid pain eating at her calm as she struggled to breathe.

His hand smoothed circles on her back, feeling every bony part of her spine, the wide planes of her shoulder blades, the fragile make up of her frame like that of a tiny newly hatched bird.

"Calm, Hinata. You must be calm. The blood is healing your lungs, you just have to let it."

Her fingers, shoved up to her mouth as she hacked until her lungs felt like they might come out, were suddenly stained blood red. Stunned she whimpered, wide eyes mesmerized by the gore.

His grip on her wrist was sudden, tight like a manacle. Using his sleeve he wiped the blood from her fingers roughly, pulling her knife from the sheath at her back to place against his wrist.

"You need to drink again."

The thought of swallowing seemed impossible. Head shaking she wheezed and closed her eyes against the sudden onslaught of coughing that overtook her.

"There is Rot and sand in your lungs, you have been coughing up blood for half a day- you must drink more."

If she had looked to his face perhaps she would have recognized his expression. The terror that fluttered with confusion in his dark eyes was similar to a recent dream. As the coughing subsided to whistling aching breaths and her shoulders relaxed minutely Sasuke shook his head, frustrated as she turned her face away from him to hide the splattered crimson on her chin.

"Damn it to hell then."

The slice of the knife on his wrist hissed. So close to her face she smelled the blood before her eyes snapped open. Wiping at her mouth she watched as he brought the flooding open vein to his own lips.

Dizzy from the lack of air, tasting the copper of her own blood so much less delicious and powerful than his own she tried to make sense of his actions. Through the web of her swaying tilting world and the rapid pounding of her heart as she tried to breathe she frowned, flabbergasted.

Dark eyes focused, he pulled his wrist away, ignoring the trickle of metallic blood he left on her hair and shoulder as he grabbed her by the base of her neck, drawing her closer.

There was a stain of silver, on the corner of his mouth. It glimmered in the strange unobstructed light of the two suns, shining so brightly in the sky.

Words stained her own lips. Words about dying, about being afraid. Words about regrets and pain. Words that he cut off when he took her face in his hands and pressed her mouth to his.

The flood of ichor from him to her was instant, a tang of copper from her own bleeding lungs and his burning healing silver mixing into a heady cocktail with the electric shock of his tongue.

There was no time to feel more than the snap of magic through her dilating veins, the ache of her chest tightening with agony as the blood of her angel traveled , reknitting, rewiring, remodeling her aches and pains.

Still, her heart stuttered as he pulled away, glaring into her face as she panted, already starting to writhe as the blood pulled her from the brink of deep endless sleep.

"Don't you dare." The words were bitterly said, his stare unshakable. "Don't you dare stop breathing."

Hinata strained to focus her eyes on him, fighting the scream that was rising in her throat with the whistling whine building in her ear drums.

In her head she heard his tone, and saw his eyes again, so like those of her dream. Her own calm voice whispered in recognition, puzzled and stunned at once.

 _Hinata, I am scared._

Mercifully, the world darkened as the pain crested and the torture of breathing finally ceased.

* * *

On the second night Amaterasu surrendered to his desire to be close to his mother. When Sasuke did not lower her body to the hard wasteland ground he finally slunk with his tail between his legs and his giant velvet ears pressed to his head towards them. Belly nearly to the ground he approached in soft keening supplication, gold eyes wide and pleading.

Sasuke stared through knots of his own dark hair, watching warily as the creature approached, meandering to his back before settling with a whine on the ground, providing a solid warm backrest for him to lean on.

Stubbornly the fallen star surveyed the beast, brows pulled tightly together as they stared back and forth at each other.

"This does not mean I approve of you at all." He muttered, noting with some surprise the grating tones of his voice as he leaned comfortably against the now bony side of the horkney.

Amaterasu deigned to snort something sassy at him before closing his gold eyes and sighing.

The storm had passed after an eternity of blasting, and although he and the horkney had coughed up thick phlegm stained with their blood and looking almost like roan red mud it was Hinata who after passing out in his arms within the cave did not wake.

Her breathing, already shaky rattled like the crunching of leaves beneath their feet when he listened with his ear to her chest.

Soon after her lips always so pink paled and then began to tinge blue. The shallow wheezing gasps more rapid, her heart beat more accelerated. Only then did Sasuke realize with a sickening lurch like his stomach falling away from him that she was dying.

Flashes of memory had shoved and elbowed in his mind as he climbed out of the crevice where they had taken refuge. First with Hinata's limp frame over his shoulder and then Amaterasu's bony hide under his arm.

His mother's pale lips as she whispered her last words kept forming in his mind, repeating her instructions over and over again. Her breath catching, her mouth spilling with her brilliant silver blood of their kind.

In the anxiety ridden struggle to push the thoughts of his mother dying away Hinata began coughing. His hands had moved automatically. His fingers had been steady even as his mind struggled to remain calm and logical. He slid the knife over his wrist, filled his mouth with his own burning blood, pressed his lips to hers and forced her to drink.

A couple of droplets should have been enough. He was not so foolish not to realize that something was wrong when hour after hour although her color improved and her breathing seemed to come with more ease she did not wake.

In the end dizziness plagued his movements as he drained himself of the molten steel coursing through his veins. Only when standing forced darkness to eat his vision did he drag a strip of dirty left over fabric from her pack to bind his wrist. Blinking away the nausea that had arisen in him as he poured his blood between her lips again and again took many deep breaths and too much time.

There was nothing left to be done, and in the end they lay together. A pile of furry horkney, a fallen star, a dying girl whispered on by the sleepy wind.

When her breathing finally slowed to a rhythm that seemed normal, restful even he allowed himself to drift away into the darkness of his mind behind his closed eyelids.

His last thought was the same thought that had been plaguing him since the woods. It was a shivering thing he held delicately in his mind as though it were a ball made of broken glass and his terrified dreams.

 _I care about her._

He blinked, invisible weights pulling his eyes slowly shut.

 _I care about her and I'm bringing her to the Scaled Worm._

If he had ever thought that perhaps he was not an immoral heartless person this choice he had made to set her on this path towards the monster he had to face settled the debate.

 _I am a bastard._

It was easy, moving from hating his brother to also hating himself.

* * *

Neji had not spoken all day. As the sun began to lower in the heavens the bustle of Tsunade operating on the injured member of the Rot Clan finally died down in the house. Tenten, having been assisting Ino and Tsunade as best she could finally found him in the courtyard behind the chancellor's house alone.

Lee, Shino and Kiba had known better than to talk to him. Their distance was less of a lack of fealty and more of a sign that they understood the Warren deeply.

Tenten's approach signaled the same knowing.

The courtyard was made of smooth gray and black stone walls, a circular ring of trees dotted in yellow flowers that filled the air with perfume and danced in the soft evening breeze.

Above the heavens turned pink and purple, the edges dimming to navy where the darkness of night was encroaching.

The Warren sat with his back to the house, shoulders hunched and head lowered. It only took a moment for Tenten to know the depth of his despair, just the touch of her brown eyes on the smooth white of his tunic stretched along the ridges of his shoulder blades.

Without hesitation she walked purposefully forward, settling on her knees in the grass before him, hands taking the smoothness of his face gently between her palms.

"Neji."

So long their people had scorned tears. Weeping was something their kind had long ago left behind. Meditation and a calmness of spirit, a steadiness of character...a coldness took their place. The double edged sword of competency was paired with a weakness they did not see coming, despite their Sight.

The inability to weep made mourning impossible and emotions therefore overwhelming. Face in his hands Neji strained to breathe, had been struggling to gasp for air since the night before.

"How can I choose?" His voice was a strangled thing, the invisible noose around his throat tightening. "How can I choose between the two beings I value more than myself?"

Trembling fingers smoothed over his cheeks and Tenten sighed, pressing her forehead to his hard. "...Neji...Hinata made a choice of her own..."

A sound, wounded and painful even to listen to made her bite her lip. Fiercely, his arms wrapped around her, dragging her hard to his chest where his heart beat so forcefully she could feel it through his sternum, knocking at the entrance of her own.

Anxious now, Tenten pressed her lips to his neck hard, brown eyes shifting to the doors. This was strictly forbidden, and would be considered an inappropriate abuse of his power over her should anyone from their party witness it. The thought of having that guilt added to his burdens made her tremble in his arms.

Still, she did not push away, but waited. Listening to his struggle for air, the panic of his blood rushing furious through his jugular against her ear.

"I can't... abandon Hanabi...she's hardly grown, but Hinata..."

Closing her eyes tightly Tenten let out a long breath.

"Hinata is with the star. She swore a vow, she traded herself for her sister." Her whisper made his grip tighten around her, the pain of her ribs crushed to his only an echo of the agony within him.

"They're heading to the Worm, Tenten." He was drowning and as he held on for dear life she shuddered, determined that this would not swallow him whole.

"She is strong. She is wise. She is selfless." Drawing a shaky breath she pulled back to peer at his face, at eyes so cloudy despite the lack of tears, face so drawn despite the inability to mourn.

"She was taught by her loving cousin to trust herself. You did your job well. The best protection she has ever had has been to believe in herself. You gave her that."

"Tenten, I..." He paused, eyes closed tightly against the struggle. "I am... I cannot.."

There was only so much anxiety she could hear in his voice, only so much pain. When her lips touched his to silence the agony the only thought was to soothe the hurt, like water on a burn, or stitches to a wound.

She should have known it would transfer some of his pain to her, that the touch of his mouth to hers would shatter something that had separated them, a thinning slice of life that said "No, you may not pass."

His touch was not stunned, but thirsty, his tongue a sweetness within her mouth. The blood was loud in her ears, her breath useless in her lungs. There was only the softness of his lips, the desperation in his grip and the sharp agonizing flare of something hot and earnest in her belly. A sound, so quiet and gentle it reminded her of a mewling feline escaped her mouth. Abruptly he was pulling back, eyes wide and stunned, moving to stand and step away as though burned.

Tenten panted, shocked more by his sudden withdrawal and the stricken look on his pale face than the kiss itself.

"I cannot...we cannot be so inappropriate again." His whisper felt like a blow to her stomach and she scrambled back as though scalded, watching as he carefully drew his limbs tightly to himself.

"I apologize, I have crossed a line." His voice kept coming, blow after furious blow and Tenten pressed a hand to her chest, stunned by the sharp stab leaving her breathless.

"N..no, I... I.." she began, brown gaze searching the ground for something, anything to soothe the sudden twist of an invisible knife within her. "Please, I am so sorry."

"Please, go inside. Find the others and tell them I will be there shortly to discuss our movement at dawn." His orders were calm, the shake in his voice disappeared as though it had never been.

Still shaking Tenten nodded. "Yes, of course." Her feet felt heavy, her limbs like lead and with an uncharacteristic stumble she threw herself inside Tsunade's house, a hand to her mouth to keep the monstrous thing writhing inside her chest from escaping in a cry.

Standing stiffly in the court yard alone Neji let out a long shaky breath, reaching up to touch his face where the trails of her trembling fingers still burned.

He was the Warren, a thing made for guarding, for sacrificing and dying. She was his shadow, living even after his inevitable demise, freed only by the return of his body to the soil from which plants grew.

Grief could not overwhelm him into crossing lines that had been drawn and rules meant to keep her safe. Swallowing hard he gathered himself together. When he entered the house and began organizing the shadows he did not look at her.

In his mind this was the night of his two largest losses. Forevermore his life would be divided. There would be the time before with Tenten and Hinata as planets swirling in the dark night sky of his life. Dominating the heavens, always the most beautiful things to shine. And the time after, when their distance became something he not only knew...but deeply understood as uncrossable.

* * *

The rhythm beneath her body brought memories of spring time when she was young. The swaying back and forth rock of a canoe beneath her knees and the comforting ripple of water to support her as she and her cousin traveled down river from the hot springs at the edges of the Hawk Eyed Clan's old orchards. Long ago the Dryness had overtaken the soil beneath the fruit trees and the roots had dried to skeletal limbs like the old arms of corpses. Long before that the leaves had fallen and the trees had stopped producing fruit. At least the roots held back the banks of the river, allowing them to fish when game was scarce in the forest.

The sway of the canoe had been soothing, despite her fear of the river's depth in some places. Back and forth the canoe had swayed beneath her bones, and when she allowed herself to close her eyes and breathe she had felt safe. Memories of being carried in arms much bigger than her own as a child overlapped in her mind and so when she woke in his arms it took her a moment to be surprised.

The wind was blowing with a sort of feral tenderness, all bared teeth with no bite. She could feel it tossing her hair and tugging on her clothes but none of it's ferocity was behind it. The powder that flowed on the breeze was soft not grating sharply and with a shuddering breath that didn't ache into her marrow she realized she felt... alive.

His steps were calm and unhurried, his grip gentle and when she finally looked up his gaze slid down to meet her, so close it dragged blood to her cheeks. Praying that the gritty mess surely covering her face hid the flush Hinata stared.

"What...what happened?"

As he stopped and carefully lowered her feet to the wasteland ground with a hand firmly around her arm to steady her, he let out a breath somewhere between irritation and relief.

"The storm nearly slayed you." His hand left her elbow then, as he realized her legs were steady. Her face remained earnestly seeking his, searching for answers. Busying himself with sliding the pack off his back to hand to her he muttered darkly. "You have been unconscious for three days."

Amaterasu's head was suddenly pressing into her hands and Hinata blinked down at the creature, forcing a smile as she tried to think of the last memory she could find. Her mind grasped into darkness as she rubbed behind the horkney's ears. Heart picking up speed at the vast blank emptiness of her memories she frowned, staring at her hand crusted with old blood smudged and dirty.

"Three days..." The smallness of her voice was nearly taken away by the howling sigh of the wind. Looking back up at him she felt her chest constrict, her eyes filling with both guilt and thankfulness that pooled in glittering beads at the corners of her eyes.

"Why didn't you leave me?"

The only sign of a response from the star was the hardly visible wince of his gaze, dark eyes ripping from her face to look at the horizon where their destination now gleamed brightly.

"I need you to look and tell me what you see." He jutted his chin towards the mountain in the distance now no longer impossibly far away but looming large and dark against the azure sky.

Hinata swallowed, aware that her question had been blatantly ignored.

Reluctantly squinting towards the edges of the waste she started. The mountain was a titan, a brutal jagged piece of earth piercing the sky. At the very top a crater sunk deep into it's uppermost hills, dusted with white powder that reflected the sunlight.

There were no trees on the slate and stone that stretched towards the heavens. Nothing but the sharp edges of a desolate mountain flanked by smaller less impressive peaks and at it's base, huddled in the half circle of these giants- white stone spires, shining towers, glimmering fountains spread wide.

A palace... lacking in fortification but brimming with fountains and gardens glowed like a mirage in the distance. Heart hammering in her throat at the sight of glittering liquid that looked painfully like water, Hinata let out a breath.

"There are gardens... towers." She turned to Sasuke, stunned. "There are no fortifications. No walls to keep out invaders, no watch towers or even... a border." She shook her head in disbelief. "Why is the Scaled Worm's realm not protected?"

Sasuke stared on unrelenting for a moment, jaw clenched. In the endless flat of the Rot they would be seen easily by the palace. Likely as not they had already been spotted some time ago.

Shifting his gaze to her again he waved at the Rot. "There is no need to fortify against invasion. No army can cross this. And one warrior cannot take the whole castle." Turning back to his target he let out a long breath.

The Scaled Worm had been nothing but a foot note at the end of a long lesson on the Veil. There had been kings and queens. Countries long gone. Battles long ago fought and at the end of the chapter he had squinted at the scroll in his study as a child. His knowledge of the creature was limited to those four lines detailing the long and endless existence of the monster they sought.

 _ **The Scaled Worm, a monster long loathed by Heaven and feared by the Veil.**_

 _ **Not of Hell, not of Veil not of Sky.**_

 _ **Dealing in medicines and remedies,**_

 _ **in the finding of things lost and the trading of lives.**_

 _ **Hoarder of all precious things-**_

 _ **not precious to it but to those who come begging a boon.**_

 _ **May it one day fall away to dust.**_

Hinata's thick swallow was loud enough to hear and ignoring the jabbing pain in his neck and the weakened feel of his limbs from such a massive loss of blood in the past three days he began to walk again.

"We should be there by sundown, if we make haste."

Stumbling after him Hinata nodded, head down against the growing blast of the wind, still preoccupied with the dark nothing in her mind where the memories of her past three days should have been.

"Does it not...Does it not usually want something to trade?" Her eyes lifted again to the palace so close and so daunting with it's pretentious white pillars, it's glimmering skylights and bubbling fountains.

Sasuke nodded, the nervous thought having already taken root in his mind. Yes, the Scaled Worm was always interested in deals, in trading and bargaining. He had thought arriving with the prized blood in his veins would be enough to secure him the location of his brother. But if what he knew of the monster was true...

 _ **Hoarder of all precious things- not precious to it but to those who come begging a boon.**_

Glancing back at her over his shoulder he felt his chest tighten with the fear becoming nerve wreckingly familiar. His blood, although precious was not of so valuable to himself. Not if death was coming for him after his brother's demise. There was only one thing he could think of that he could admit willingly he now counted as precious in his life.

With wide pale eyes Hinata stared back, confused by his gaze.

Without another word the star turned away, missing the moment when her expression changed, too busy formulating a plan to keep her safe.

Behind him Hinata touched her mouth, wide eyed and stunned as a memory, feeble and unreliable fluttered through her mind. A memory of Sasuke's lips on hers as she nearly died.

* * *

It had been decades since the last time either Hidan or Kisame had ever been from their Captain for more than a day. The pangs of withdrawal were heady, and as a result their already short fuses were on the much shorter side. Still, something of the angel blood had taken off many of their prickly edges over the years. As a result they were more like sputtering candle wicks than fuses, if Kisame was truly honest with himself.

"Deidara's bird located them about a week's walk from here." Hidan drawled, stretching his arms up and popping the joints of his elbows and shoulders in a grotesque display. "Why are we bothering to stop at this run down shack?"

It was an exaggeration of course. The wooden gate had been expertly made, and even Kisame wondered briefly how they would enter into the village if the people within refused entry to what looked like a monster (himself) and what was an actual monster (Hidan).

Cocking his head, he eyed the purpling bruise of what looked like crusting blood on the dirt ground before the gate, and raised a dark brow before flicking his eyes back up at the sentry.

He was not surprised to find a pale young face with an arrow pointed at his head staring back at him. The wide grin however was slightly more unnerving.

"Even if you weren't so ugly you would be on dangerous ground now." The young man who was really more of a boy than anything shouted down. "But your ugliness does really not help you by way of soliciting compassion."

Kisame was unfazed. A lifetime and then several more of his lifetimes had been spent hearing such talk. At about a century words no longer burned, just stung. Like mosquito bites.

"Want me to maim him?" Hidan cocked his head at him lazily, and the scythe cut the air in a humming circle expertly in his hands.

"No." Kisame didn't bother looking at him. There was nothing about his offer that was for Kisame's sake. Hidan just had a penchant for making people bleed. Sometimes Kisame wondered at their Captain's choices for his band, but then who was he to judge? He'd slaughtered all his kin, sins were sins were sins no matter who did them.

"What do you want?" The archer remained steady, his arrow well aimed, his arm unshakable. Kisame sighed.

"Child, fetch an adult to speak with us. This might be beyond your wisdom."

Sai cocked his head, his smile as unshakable as his arm. Both the same level of unnerving.

"I don't recall ever being a child. Children are innocent."

Hidan grunted, amusement coming out with his breath. "The insanity in this one shows."

Another face appeared at the gate then, more drawn, eyes cool and observant. It took Kisame one second to figure out he was dealing with the brains, if not the leadership. He smiled wide, showing all the sharpened teeth that filled his mouth. Too many to fit and yet there they were, flashing in the light.

"We are looking for information, nothing more. Cooperate and we will happily retain our manners."

"Manners?" Hidan's voice was just at the point of not being a shout. "What manners?"

"Information of what sort?" Shikamaru's voice was steady, and one hand on Sai's shoulder had the pale smiling man lowering his bow a fraction, relaxing his arm enough to look almost like they were calm.

Almost.

"We are hunting a fallen star." Kisame raised his hands. "We know he passed this way. Have you any knowledge of this?"

There was a moment of contemplation and for once Shikamaru was glad to see that Sai's face remained completely unmoved, his smile as unreadable as a mask.

"And if we did?"

"Well then we would ask you share and then when you did we would be on our way."

"What if they have fermented brews?" Hidan put in. It had been several months since he had tasted liquor and the thought put him in a sudden hankering mood, something Itachi's blood had repelled when taken as a tonic every day. "...or women." He added, is eyes lighting up at the thought.

Sai's arrow and the powerful pull of his arm raised once more, his smile unchanging.

"Ignore him." Kisame shrugged in Hidan's direction. "We need to make haste. We know the star is ahead of us by some time."

"Three weeks at least." Shikamaru said and Sai's head snapped to him, revealing his shock at the revelation and therefore it's authenticity. Kisame's feral grin returned. "Is that so?"

"It was headed to the Scaled Worm. That is our assumption. We did not see it, only knew of it's passing." Shikamaru's eyes flickered to Sai to signal he keep quiet and the archer returned to his targets, face no longer smiling, but placid.

"That bag of filth." Kisame muttered, thinking about the Scaled Worm. "Well. We thank you."

"But the spirits... the women?" Hidan whined behind him as he began to step back towards the woodland.

Another sweep of his eyes landed on the bloody stain of the earth before the gate and he paused.

"Been slaughtering on your door step lately?" His eyes, so unlike anything else Shikamaru had ever seen left no room for half truths. Thankfully Shikamaru knew better than to even test the waters. These beings pulsed with a power he had not encountered before but at the feel of the Hawk Eyed magic and only in short increments. Like breathing, these two strangers fluctuated the realm of reality around them. Their black eyes so alike in shade it could be no coincidence. They were something else... something beyond his abilities.

"The people of the Rot brought us a wounded man." He swallowed, remembering the mess of blood and filth that had coated Tsunade's operating room, the crunch of the hardened mud beneath her feet crackling as she withdrew an arrow from the man's head. "He left his essence smeared many places."

"The people of the Rot." Hidan grunted, glancing at Kisame again. "Those poor sods." There was not much compassion in the statement.

"Three weeks, you said?" Kisame asked once more and Shikamaru's brow furrowed. "An estimation at best, but yes... about that."

One swift nod had the shark-ish creature and his humanoid monster of a partner heading into the coolness of the woodland at an easy lumbering walk without another word.

"Are we crossing the Rot then?" Hidan grumbled, flinging his scythe back to his shoulder with a petulant scowl.

"It will hardly take us a week." Kisame threw back impatiently. "We can check on that sack of excrement that calls himself wise."

"The Scaled Worm." Hidan sighed, and then flashed his teeth. Despite their lack of points they still made him look feral as Kisame. "Can we slay him?"

Kisame's slow unwavering smile rose to meet his. "Well... the Captain never said not to, so perhaps-"

"Yes." Hidan snapped, and in two hops of his feet he was off at a run, faster than any deer, rippling through the wood and grass and leaves in a flash.

Shaking his head Kisame followed, throwing a quick look at the white clay bird that followed from the air.

Far, in a land almost too distant to seem part of the same Veil they traversed Deidara blinked rapidly at his Captain. He sat with his wings white and extended in a halo of light among the greenery and stone in front of the wide expanse of freezing tundra that housed their ultimate destination.

Sitting in his lap, head on his chest and eyes closed Izumi breathed in sleep, completely at ease in the grip of what many called the Apostate.

"The Scaled Worm." Deidara reported softly. "It would appear that is where your brother was last known to be headed. Although even at their speeds, I do not know if Kisame and Hidan will reach the mountain while he is still there."

The blonde paused to gauge the reaction on his captain's face. The angel sighed looking down at the sleeping woman in his arms, tracing her brow with one long elegant finger long calloused from years of violence. He had figured as much, if his brother's goal was to end him then the Scaled Worm would be the first stop. Not an easy step, but the first of many difficult ones.

More carefully Deidara cleared his throat. "Will he survive?"

Itachi looked up then, his expression calm if a little sad. Around him the ferns and wide palmed plants of a northern wood shivered at the touch of his wings as they shifted.

"It will be difficult, if he is alone. However, you said there was a companion."

Deidara shifted his feet, and beside him Sasori fixed him with a look that said "Do no lie."

"A girl." The blonde's eyes lingered on Izumi so happily resting in Itachi's arms. "Dark haired." He swallowed. "White eyed."

Itachi froze, his wings stilled, his hand tracing all of Izumi's delicate features stuttering to a stop. Slowly he raised his gaze to Deidara.

"Someone from Izumi's Valley travels with him?"

Deidara nodded. "I would say...judging from the features... she's from the Clan you gifted in his name."

Itachi stared, his thoughts a volley of fireworks and confusion and perhaps even hope.

Life it seemed, enjoyed a healthy sense of irony.

* * *

He had been concerned that despite all the silver blood he had forced into her mouth that she would wake shaking and weak as she was before the storm. Days of coughing up bloody sand, clearing her damaged lungs and writhing in pain as he worked to get air into her chest left him as exhausted as he figured she was.

Now, as the dusk bled into the darkness of the night he realized with the pain on his neck throbbing worse than ever and the strange weakness in his limbs refusing to abate she was perhaps in better shape than him.

Amaterasu slunk along at his side, long pink tongue scratching at his fingers from time to time, as though sensing something different in his walk, or his breath. Sasuke eyed him warily as they trudged, half annoyed and half amused by the horkney's attempts to soothe him.

"There are lights." Hinata's voice was clear, subdued but steady as she came up beside him.

They could both see the palace clearly now. Right up to the dusty red disaster of the Rot, marble tiles had been laid down so that the contrast between order and chaos was abrupt. Hinata stared at the blocks of white marble in the half light of the settings suns. They formed a path, long and straight hedged by bushes perfectly round and unnatural in pots made of glass, showing the roots like white hair passing through the dark rich soil within them.

On either side of the path, gardens spread. Bushes and trees heavy laden with fragrant flowers and whispering leaves in the wasteland wind shuddered. Dragonmoths glowed, pink, purple and green as they buzzed from flower to flower, alighting on ponds fed by fountains that gurgled and giggled as water poured.

She had expected a dank hole, the smell of rotting bodies and the remnants of precious gifts strewn about a blood stained cave mouth.

"No sentries." She whispered, releasing Amaterasu as he rushed to a fountain and began to drink in heaving gulps.

"That creature will make himself ill." Sasuke grunted, black eyes studying the stillness of the Scaled Worm's territory.

The path, shining bone white in the growing shadows led towards imposing wooden doors at the top of an endless staircase of white. More marble pillars thick as the pine tree trunks of the forest they had left behind held up the roof of the palace that rose up against the mountain as though it had been carved out of it. There were towers and turrets and windows to spare, dotting the black shadow of the mountainside more numerous in their glow than the stars above in the sky.

"I... I would have thought they would see us approaching." Hinata whispered again, and for a moment insanity seemed to filter through her fingers and the itch to take Sasuke's hand made her press her palm to her thigh tightly, as though in restraint.

"They did." Sasuke muttered, turning back to her he searched her face and she stilled, feeling the rush of blood that his eyes seemed to trigger now every time he stared.

"You will do as I say when we go in. You will _not_ argue, and you will _not_ question. In order to get us both out of here alive I need you..." he paused, and she waited feeling tension snapping across her shoulders as he drew a deep shuddering breath, eyes as endless and unreadable as the black sky. "...I need you to trust me."

The words were out of her mouth before she had even really thought them.

"I already trust you."

Confusion, brief like the sudden rise of frightened birds to the heavens fluttered on his face and disappeared as he turned away, starting down the long white path to the doors.

"Amaterasu." His voice was stern, his walk rapid and in a moment, despite the indulgent slurping of the water he had craved so much on their trek the horkney snapped to his side like a magnet calls a nail.

Slinking along behind them both Hinata focused on staring ahead, scouting for danger. It was a good attempt at ignoring the pounding of her heart trying to escape in her chest.

The silence was only breached by the sound of so much water. Fountains seemed to sprout every few feet. It took all her restraint not to dive into one in the same fashion Amaterasu had done but following Sasuke's cue she continued after him, ignoring her thirst.

There was nothing about Sasuke's movements that suggested he was hiding and so for that reason Hinata kept her hands from tightening around the knife at the small of her back. On his shoulder Sasuke carried her bow and arrow and for a brief moment she was surprised to find the urge to take it, the familiar soothing feel of the fletching between her fingers and the bow solid in her palm sorely missed in her anxiety.

"Do no speak unless spoken to." Sasuke called back as they came finally through the endless gardens and to the rising white steps that lifted the enormous carved wooden doors above them.

Hinata frowned slightly at his back, opening her mouth to ask something only to be cut off suddenly as light carved through the dusk's growing darkness in a ever widening sliver.

The giant doors creaked loudly on their hinges and her fingers tightened painfully on her knife hilt as the golden shaft of light widened with their opening embrace.

From below at the bottom of the steps they started, stunned to see women lined on their knees on either side of a long crimson red carpet. Their robes were simple brown and clean. Their hair pulled tightly into a knot at the base of their necks and their faces were bowed low to the ground. There were dozens, stretching back into the glowing brightness of the palace entrance. Above them a chandelier made of a thousand candles spilled light in excess down the steps towards Sasuke, Hinata and Amaterasu frozen at the entrance. Hinata's eyes focused on the black leather strip she had never seen before that seemed to be tight around all of the women's necks, confused by the decoration.

"..w..what-?" Hinata began and froze at the look Sasuke shot over his shoulder at her. Remembering his instructions she clamped her mouth tightly and stepped back, choking on her confusion.

The women remained still except for the four that were pushing the doors wide, two on either side.

"Someone comes." Hinata whispered, straining her eyes to count heads. At Sasuke's side Amaterasu growled deep, the rumble like the first groaning war cry of thunder.

"How many?" Sasuke's soft voice reached back for her as he stepped in her way, shoulders tense but as always straight and determined as he looked forward. There was no fear in that stance, no hesitation.

Hinata swallowed, wishing somehow she could absorb some of his confidence. Folding her hands behind her back to hide their trembling she murmured. "Five. Two men, three... girls, I believe."

Finally able to see them clearly walking towards them Sasuke sighed. "Remember what I said. Be silent unless spoken to."

Nervously she nodded, just as the approaching crowd became clear enough that the man in front was able to flash them a wide smile.

He was tall, and lithe as a panther, moving with the elegant gait of someone feeling at ease with himself, sure of the world around him. Billowing robes of blood red draped from his shoulders and swung like curtains at his arms. Something about him seemed strangely female despite the fact that he was taller than Sasuke by a head and his jaw was hard and carved like stone.

Still too far for quiet conversation he waved a hand, not a hello so much as a flutter of his fingers to signal his amity and he shouted, "Welcome, welcome! We have been expecting you! Please do not linger at the threshold. Come."

Behind the man stood a boy really, by comparison. Where one exuded age and wisdom in charming behavior so the young boy on the brink of manhood exuded nerves and uncertainty. Spectacles lined his face and his hair was so blonde it appeared white. Hinata stared with wide eyes having never seen a person with hair so pale before. At a distance she had thought it was an elderly person, but his features so perfect and young flickered with interest at the sight of her and nervously looked away.

Behind them, dressed in identical brown dresses, neat and simple stood three girls. Their hair cut the same with straight bangs across their forehead and sheared short in the back. Besides their differing lips and noses one would have thought they were triplets. Eyes down they paused just behind the red robed man and the young boy, still as statues.

"I was unaware I would be welcomed here." Sasuke replied finally, having waited until they were close enough that he would not have to shout the way the other man had. Hinata tried to stay still, her eyes watching Amaterasu's trembling side, his growl so very low it rippled through his body and into her in near silence.

"Oh of course you are welcome." The smile on the man's face widened a fraction and his eyes flickered over Hinata and Amaterasu, the affect of his lingering gaze evident on his vanishing grin. "My, my... I see you brought pets."

Hinata's flinch was involuntary, but as her face flooded with heat Sasuke's reply muted her voice. "Is that a problem?"

"No of course not." The man waved a hand as though batting away a fly, his eyes rolling. "My master has many such pets himself." And his eyes flickered to the four behind him, including the boy who was now staring fixedly at the stone ground.

"Your master." Sasuke allowed slowly, eyes fluttering from each face until he came to a stop on the most animated of them all.

The dark haired man smiled again. "Ah. Yes. I am Lord Utterance." He waved his hand in a strange way that seemed to give the impression of a curtsy with none of the actual bowing. "Speaker for the Scaled Worm."

Hinata stared, her frown involuntary and bewildered as she looked again at all the silent figures behind him and at the palace beyond them too. This was not what she had anticipated. A cave bleak and dangerous, a creature repulsive and faceless had been the thing of her nightmares when she had first heard of the Scaled Worm.

But this...

"I have no business with you then. I come to see your master." Sasuke snapped, impatience making his wings shift behind him, and Hinata watched as Lord Utterance fixed on those glistening black feathers, his smile unshakable as though wrought of iron.

"Yes... he is unfortunately not available for the next few days but I have been instructed to offer you every courtesy. He is most interested in what you might have brought to trade..."

At this his eyes flickered behind Sasuke's shoulders where his wings huddled tightly to his back, and then his gaze snagged like a piece of silk drifting down a river caught on a sharp branch, frozen by the sight of Hinata's pale eyes.

"...how...very interesting." He whispered.

Subtly Sasuke stepped into his line of vision and Hinata lowered her head, searching the marble ground and her boots with wide eyes for something to calm the frantic terror that was making her heart gallop in her chest.

Out of her periphery the gardens shone like emerald encrusted fields. The fountains gurgled and giggled in the fading light. Their basin bottoms overflowing and pouring into trenches dug into the earth, criss crossing through the cobblestone paths in the plants as they irrigated everything to a lush green impossiblyy healthy glow with the red of the Rot in the background.

"It is a pity that your wings are such a shade, Fallen Star. I had understood from my lord that he was most interested in the feathers." He smiled, all teeth and no affection on his too wide mouth. "I believe he was hopeful you would consider trading your flight for whatever service you wish him to perform for you."

Behind Sasuke Hinata strained not to recoil at the thought of someone assuming that limbs were a viable trade option. Mouth dry she forced herself to breathe calmly, staying right at the edge of Sasuke's shadow as he glared at Lord Utterance before him. The barest tightening of his fists suggested his disgust at the insinuation.

"Your Lord hoped in futility. There is nothing that would separate an angel from it's wings. Perhaps he is not as wise as he was said to be."

Lord Utterance laughed, surprising them both despite the insult. "Oh, he has dealt with angels before, my Lord Star. He knows your kind quite well. Perhaps you are the one that has not had enough experience with those of your own breed."

Sasuke shifted just slightly and had Hinata not being paying attention he would have bumped into her. A sizzling pop of electricity bubbled in the air along with the giggles of the fountains and Lord Utterance paused, looking contemplative as he studied his new guest. Behind him the three girls and the blonde blue robed boy stayed perfectly still, like statues.

"You would do well to remember that my patience is threadbare, my time is precious and your Lord is disrespectful to keep me waiting." Sasuke's dark eyes leveled on Lord Utterance the same way lava slid down mountainsides, consuming, threatening, burning.

Lord Utterance looked strangely unfazed, hands clasped behind his back as he surveyed the star before him.

"I apologize, Lord Star, however you would do well to remember that my master is a thousand years of wisdom embodied. He was here to see empires rise and fall, he was here to witness the rain of stars and the emptying of the skies. Here at least, if no where else you are not invincible, despite the battles won on your way to my Lord's domain."

"No battles." Sasuke replied smoothly, face impassive , watching the subtle flick of Lord Utterance's tongue at the corner of his mouth and the twist of his lips as he smiled. "Besides the wasteland the path here was dull."

"Dull." His smile continued unrepentant and firm. "Is that so?" His eyes shifted from Sasuke's face, sliding like fetid oil onto Hinata's form, so carefully trying to blend into the growing darkness of the setting suns.

Sasuke finally allowed his gaze to leave Lord Utterance's face and flickered to the dark head of hair that was meticulously bowed, shoulders mercifully still.

"How came you then to boast one of the Hawk Eyed as your... companion?" There was weight to the question, interest and not for the sake of curiosity but calculating. Sasuke felt his stomach clench.

Stubbornly and with the same candid tone as before he replied. "Her Clan was foolish enough to think they could take me, and the blood that runs within me for the sake of their fields. They were wrong. She is nothing but a trophy." His gaze lingered on Hinata for a moment and he managed with some effort to turn away with disdain. "She is half starved from the Rot, I admit I did not take much care for her through the journey and I am surprised she survived."

"Is that so? Here I thought perhaps you came to offer her as a...down payment for my Lord's assistance."

"I doubt he would take her."

"I suppose it would depend first and foremost on what her value was to _you_."

It took effort to remain calm, to keep his face placid and his fingers from tightening. The flicker of memory rifled up the lines from his texts, read so long ago in the shadows of his study in heaven as a child.

 _ **Hoarder of things precious-not to it but to those that would come begging a boon.**_

"Then he certainly will not be interested."

Lord Utterance did not look away, did not shift to a different topic nor let his eye wander from Sasuke's face. The flick of his tongue at the corner of his mouth once more made Sasuke's insides tighten and with the same feeling of approaching a cliff edge he realized.

 _He does not believe me._

"A trophy, you say." He mused softly, and blatantly he glanced at the blonde young man beside him, who looked back with a soft agreeable expression behind his spectacles.

"Well, no matter. My master understands trophies rather well, seeing as he keeps many of his own." His eyes so focused on Sasuke's wings shifted finally to his face again, his smile expanding once more. "Unfortunately the beast will have to remain in the stables. The chit you may bring with, if you must."

Gazing at Hinata uncertainly he added. "If you _must_. Although I cannot imagine what use she could be."

The insinuation to leave her behind was strong, and Hinata swallowed down the growing panic in her throat, confusion at Sasuke's words and his sudden cold demeanor tangling in her mind with memories of his arms around her tight and the smell of mint so bright as she let herself be held.

Chin down she stared at the white stone beneath her feet, feeling suddenly how very dirty she was compared to these strangers. Their clothing gleamed, their faces shone with the recent touch of soap, their hair reflected the light of the dim wasteland suns.

"She has her uses. She will be coming with me." Sasuke's voice left no room for further discussion, his tone hard.

"As you wish. At least allow me to have her bathed..." Lord Utterance turned and motioning for the others to begin back up the steps he added furtively over his shoulder,

"...nothing of personal use should ever be quite that filthy. Chattels, take the beast and the Fallen Star's slave to get...refreshed." The hesitation in the Lord's voice was not in the three girl's limbs as they snapped forward as one, moving like a spill of chocolate down the white steps towards Hinata and Amaterasu at Sasuke's back.

Tensing visibly Hinata's hand snatched for her knife, breath coming in panicked gasps. Beside her, the growl that had been so low it was more of a vibration than a real sound erupted from Amaterasu in warning, hackles rising and teeth bared. Startled Hinata realized the sheer growth of his body since his arrival. The endless waste and the starvation that came with it seemed to have not stemmed his growth and despite his skeletal frame his shoulder stood nearly to her waist when drawn up in threat.

"Rasu!" Sasuke's snap muted the pup's snarl and Hinata stilled, breath held silent in her chest at the sight of Sasuke's barely turned head in their direction.

" _Obey_."

It was all the horkney needed to hear, jaw loosening his clenched teeth, a soft whine rising from his throat, he lowered his tail, ears deflating on his head and uncertainly he inched behind the one girl nervously approaching with hands up, motioning him back.

Before she could argue, before she could beg for Rasu to be with her the other two Chattels were at her sides, hands on her arms, faces stern and severe as they dragged her backwards.

Panic fluttered in her stomach and despite her best intentions to do as Sasuke instructed she shuddered in their grip, tugging at their hold petulantly.

Without another word Sasuke climbed the steps to stand beside Lord Utterance, engaging him in another conversation without once looking back at her pleading gaze.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	11. Trust

_**So, there is a lot that is going to happen in the next few chapters. This is easily the most challenging part of writing this story- besides all the world building. I don't like the way that I have it set up, but I am unsure of how to rearrange it to make it flow more smoothly. I am also a huge jabber mouth and can't seem to write chapters that are less than 10k. I didn't want to burden you all with a longer chapter, that seemed unfair and insane. .**_

 ** _I do tend to write fast and furious and get it the story ALL out at once and look at major issues with it later, so if you see flaws please point them out, that is a kindness to me. I really have some of the most lovely people reviewing and reading this story and I appreciate it so much. I hope not to disappoint. (no pressure, inky, no pressure *hysterical laugh*)_**

 ** _Much, much love_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

This was a kind of torture she had never thought of.

With a cry Hinata flew into the kitchens. It had to be the kitchens because the overpowering smells of food being sauteed and boiled, steamed and simmered attacked her with the same force the three Chattels were using to propel her through the grounds.

Endless gardens, swirling artfully placed stones and smooth pebbles in shining watery ponds beckoned. The water glimmered and her tongue still coated with rot felt heavier and more grotesque in her mouth than ever before.

Bile rose in her throat and desperately she struggled in their grip, their nails digging into her arms and negating her access to the one thing she had been desperate for for days.

They were wordless, and that was more unnerving than vicious words or snapping orders. The women bent over the stoves and the crackling fires within the black metal shapes of stoves were more stout and less appealing than the three that held her. Over their brown dresses stained white aprons hung from plump waists and their age showed on their faces.

As did their unabashed hatred.

Hinata squirmed in her captors hands as she was dragged past tables heavy laden with fruits and vegetables, herbs growing from small ceramic pots leaking their aromatic fragrance into the air as she passed, tantalizing and unreachable.

At the back, in a dark corner a bamboo divider had been raised with paper screens in stained greasy patches. Behind it sat a vat of water looking about as close to boiling as water can get without being over the fire. It steamed aggressively. The wooden walls of the tub lined in copper shone and sweated with the heat.

Wide eyed Hinata started, at first glad to see the water and then decidedly panicked as the three Chattels took her by the arms and without so much as a word to each other let alone her threw her into the scorching liquid, clothes and all.

It burned in a way that she had not been burned before. Her gasping cries were those of the drowning but their grip on her body was furious and vindictive. Noises she had never made before ripped from her mouth, words that she was unsure were either pleading or threatening.

Their hands tore the clothing from her body, and submerged her head beneath the scalding liquid,dragging her up only to pull on her hair with their soap laden hands, scrubbing her skin with pumice stones like weapons meant to skin her alive.

It occurred to her after a few moments of panic that she was sobbing. Ashamed of herself and her terror Hinata buried her face in her hands, letting them rip at her hair with their combs and sandpaper the skin off her back.

The feeling of numbness caused by Sasuke's sudden chilly regard for her moments before had passed, shattering into her reality. She was a thing, owned and dirty and therefore getting washed. Of course they would treat her like less than a rag.

"What are you doing?"

The voice was female, sharp and with the tinge of authority. Unable to take more abusive hands than the three pairs she already had on her Hinata shrunk further into the water, hugging her naked body.

The Chattels stopped moving, their silence continuing on in its eeriness even in the chaotic clamor of the palace kitchens just on the other side of the dirty bamboo divider.

"Look at her!" The snap was decidedly stern. The Chattels jumped as one being. "Her back is bleeding for Veil's sake. Get out." When no one moved Hinata lifted her head.

The young woman was beautiful because she demanded you think so. She held herself with the same air as an empress, her back straight, her billowing blue robes like those of the boy with Lord Utterance, immaculate. Dark brown hair tightly bound, fanned into spikes at the back of her head.

But it was her eyes that decided who was in charge. Flashing dangerously she fixed the three girls with the searing burn of her displeasure. "Get out!"

The snap was like a whip and despite their sudsy hands and rolled up sleeves the three girls jumped to do as they were told.

"Damaging the property of a Fallen Star, like a trio of fools. Get out. I do not even want to see your faces. Imbeciles." Irritation dripped from her voice and the Chattels disappeared, heads down, brows furrowed with annoyance.

Left alone in the still scalding water Hinata stared at this new frightening creature , sniffing slightly as she rubbed the tears from her eyes lest someone see them. She wasn't sure why but the idea of the Scaled Worm knowing she could provide such nourishment for the star he was to bargain with gave her a bad feeling in her gut. Sasuke had avoided saying what she was for. And despite the fact that he had called her a slave they were still in this dangerous place together.

Or at least, she hoped that was the case.

Sighing deeply the young woman turned back to her, jaw flexing. "Do not mind them- or the others." she muttered. "They are sore. Word has not come back from their men and... if you and your master are here I reckon that means they will not be coming back."

Hinata stared, still dazed and uncomprehending. "I beg your pardon?"

"Never mind." Sighing again she moved forward, to a hip tall ceramic vase in the corner which she dipped into with a wide black lacquered bowl.

Handing her the dish she nodded. "I bet you those vipers did not offer you something to drink despite your journey. They would be so vexing."

Grabbing at the water with sudden ferocity Hinata gulped it down, feeling the coolness of it washing down some of the grit in her mouth and the foul taste of the Rot that lingered on her teeth.

The woman watched silently, her face betraying a tinge of pity. "You look fairly starved. How did he get you through that wasteland without killing you, I wonder?" It was more of a thought than an actual question and so Hinata didn't deign to answer, only stared at her bowl now empty with a soft mourning expression.

Taking the bowl the girl stood. "Come, you've been soaped and lathered until your skin will surely come off. Let us get you dressed and you can eat something. If you manage to keep the food down I will give you more water."

This seemed like an unusual amount of kindness and the sheer offer made Hinata's eyes water with tears. Desperately she hid behind a curtain of her dark wet hair and pressed a hand to her face, breathing in unsteadily.

When she finally lifted her gaze the woman was studying her intently, eyes searching hers with a sort of knowing-ness that made her shiver.

"Those pearls of yours give you away." She murmured, holding a bundle of neatly folded clothing in her arms. "We had stories of your kind in the mountains where I am from. There were tales of your eyes striking men down with just a flick of your lashes."

Hinata stared, swallowing thickly. "...No...I...I cannot-"

"Oh, I figured they were tales the moment I saw you." she cocked her head, frowning a little. "You were sent to hunt him, were you not?"

The drink seemed to have put some of the old calmness back into her bones and with a set of her jaw that took a little more effort than usual Hinata raised her chin and said nothing.

The silence stretched, taut with tension and despite the rising heat to her cheeks Hinata kept her gaze steady, clenching her teeth.

A smile finally broke out on the other girl's face and extending a towel towards the Hawk Eyed princess in the water she chuckled lightly. "I am Anko. Here, dry off and get dressed. When I heard you were Hawk Eyed I brought one of my tunics from home. I cannot wear them here so you would do well to take it. It's white." She offered the clothing as Hinata climbed out of the tub, eyes wide. "That is what you wear is it not, only white... and red, no? For blood."

Hinata stared at the clothing in her hands, her now clean fingers sliding over the smooth fibers of the homespun cotton.

"Yes." She admitted softly. "To never let us forget our slaying nature."

Anko blinked mildly at her before sighing. "If only that was why the Scaled Worm loved the color red so much."

"Hurry. You never know when your master is going to call you and likely as not he will not care if you have eaten or not. Get dressed and I will gather some food. Do not talk to anyone." Anko's face took on that stern expression which she had entered with, fixing Hinata with a firm unshakable look. "And try not to look at anyone either, for your sake more than theirs."

Unsure of what she meant Hinata did as she was told, wondering if Sasuke was all right and if things went sour with the Scaled Worm what would happen to her and Amaterasu.

* * *

There was never a feeling of elegance about the Veil. At home the cities were smooth and white and beautiful, their ancient carvings luxurious as time was something the people of Heaven were hardly short of. This allowed for the perfection of arts, the mastering of all hobbies, the thinking of brand new forms of expression.

However where life was a monochrome staleness in heaven on the Veil the primal savagery had it's own brutish beauty. The wild woods, the nightmarish wasteland and rot, the navy and violet expanse of the sky changing color from morning to evening.

That had a beauty he could not deny, like Hinata's blood smeared face in battle, like her tear stained lashes.

This however, this was a whole different thing.

Beauty was too delicate a word, too feather light. This was garish extravagance.

The coolness of marble was lined in bright red carpet trimmed in gold. Gilded overwrought frames hung from the corridor walls and giant arches lined the bright enormous windows letting in the light into the coolness of the palace.

It was a maze, going much deeper into the mountain than it appeared, twists and turns and staircases materialized and disappeared as they marched relentlessly on. Vases taller and wider than Sasuke decorated huge lobbies with smooth polished floors and chandeliers of precious stones.

Plants twisted around pillars from dark soil contained in glass boxes, displaying their intricate roots and the richness of the soil in which they were housed. Here the Rot and Dryness was but a distant memory. Here starvation seemed impossible.

Smells of fruit and citrus, of herbs and spices wafted from every hall, perfumes of flowers and the subtle heady touch of wood resin so natural in the forest seemed out of place in the palace of stone and jewels.

Sasuke was no fool, opulence was on show and it was not for the pleasure of the Scaled Worm, much less his subjects who skittered around in boring brown robes.

No. This was for Sasuke. For those who would come here to beg his indulgence. This was to show the monster _needed_ nothing.

 _What have you brought me?_ He was saying.

 _What do you have that I could possibly_ _ **want?**_

"My master was very pleased to see the descent of a Star onto the Veil. It has been rather a long time since he has had the pleasure of meeting with someone from the Heavens." Lord Utterance continued, taking another turn. Sasuke had lost track sometime ago of where they had entered and in the twisting maze wondered briefly how he would find Hinata if they did not acquiesce to his request to have her brought to him.

"I am not here on a social call." He snapped irritably. "When will i be able to speak with him?"

"Oh, soon enough. Please, I have prepared rooms for your comfort and pleasure. Dinner will be served in an hour and -"

"The girl." Sasuke's tone was bored, his gaze sliding down the long endless hall. Windows overlaid with the intricate patterns of the stars glimmered at the very end of the long corridor with the fading light of evening.

"Which girl the- oh. Your slave?" Lord Utterance blinked at him a moment before smiling shrewdly. "Would you like her brought to your chambers?"

There was the hint of impropriety in his tones, and for a moment Sasuke had the distinct and sickening feeling that this Lord's tongue was entirely too long for his mouth.

Unsure now of who and what he was dealing with he frowned deeply, allowing a small shimmering crackle of lightning to shift through the air. "No." Retracting his original request to have her brought to him he looked away carelessly. "Have her care for my horkney when she is done being washed."

Surprise fluttered on the Lord's face and he nodded. "Of course. Is there anything else that I can do for you?"

"Get your master to meet me sooner rather than later." Sasuke snapped irritably before turning away and dismissing him with a wave of his hand.

Lord Utterance moved in that way of his that suggested a bow with none of it's actual humility. "As you wish, sir."

The door closing quietly behind him made Sasuke swallow hard, looking around at the chamber and it's red and gold upholstery, it's shining floor, it's glimmering glass windows and the double doors leading to a marble balcony overlooking the vast waste land.

This was not what he had been anticipating. He was being blind sided and that he was sure had been the point all along. If the Scaled Worm proved to be evil it at least had thus far proved to also be clever.

Brow furrowed with worry he rather didn't want to think about Sasuke moved towards the bathing room adjoining his suite, desperate for something to do to distract him from the unfamiliar knot of nerves in his stomach.

* * *

The tunic Anko had given her was soft to the touch and well made. Intricate zigzag patterns of dark blue thread hemmed the sleeves and wooden buttons carved with miniature stars decorated their round honey colored faces.

Hinata stared at herself for a moment in the mirror that was propped against the dark rock wall well hidden behind the bamboo screen. It was speckled and warped but she could see the way the tunic hung on her body limply. She traced the bones of her hips and ribs over the cotton fibers.

The wasteland had taken much from her. Her cheekbones were sharp and angular where her face had always had a soft round shape and with her hair a dark black curtain coming along her shoulders she could see it had grown, reaching down towards the small of her back.

Still, considering she had been coughing blood only a day or so ago her heart pumped earnestly and her muscles teemed with energy. Most importantly her stomach twisted painfully inside her torso, aching with a hunger she had not felt for weeks.

The smells of cooking foods and the familiar clinking and chopping sounds of the kitchen made her think instantly of home. With the spring turning to heated summer the Villa would be buzzing with the Hawk Eyed Clan drying the loomloom butter and pounding the candy to powder with giant mortar and pastels. Herbs would be drying in the sun hanging like upside down bouquets along the veranda support beams. As the wind hummed it's song through the Hawk Eyed house the gatherers would sling their woven baskets onto their backs and their knives onto their hips to enter the forest looking for sustenance.

Pressing her lips together to keep them from shaking Hinata buried her face in her hands dragging in a breath as she strained to keep from thinking of familiar faces that broke her heart each time she pulled them from the dusty confines of her memory. At the sound of approaching steps she straightened, watching Anko enter burdened with two stacked trays.

There were foods aplenty on the red wood lacquered platter. Small dishes contained puddings made of nuts and sprinkled with seeds doused heavily in honey. Fruit rolled impatiently around the dishes in various colors and shapes including on made of many little pink and yellow lumps like a ball of confetti that smelled strongly of flowers and sweets.

A broth soup steamed from a black bowl, green beans and star shaped grains swimming in it's tiny ocean. A stew of cashews and onions was ladled over long green steamed stems of a plant Hinata did not know but that smelled strangely like ginger and chives. Many other dishes sat small and covered with their own ceramic tops, hiding their contents and beneath the lacquered red platter Anko showed her a giant slab of bright red stringy raw flesh.

Recoiling from the stench of the flesh covered in the long white streaks of fat and the hard solidity of bone protruding from one end Anko smirked knowingly.

"So, your kind truly does not eat flesh."

"...N..no." Hinata admitted, frowning. "I... I'm sorry, I cannot-"

"It's not for you. Your master has instructed that you will care for his beast. That wild thing they barely managed to get into the stables." Anko made a face. "How did you not get eaten by that demon?"

Hinata blinked slowly, suddenly eager to take the slab of flesh from Anko's pale hands. Deciding not to answer her question she took her own and Amaterasu's supper. "Please, lead the way."

Amused Anko smirked, turning to lead her out. "What a strange one you are."

* * *

There were clothes in the wardrobe in his room for which he was glad, as Hinata carried the pack with his only change and he had not asked for it before letting her be dragged away. The bow and arrow he tucked within the wardrobe and ignoring the weight of the wings tugging on his back he had arranged himself in a black tunic of a material he did not recognize. Soft to the touch but difficult to tear, as seen by the fact that his wings pushed through the back after a bit of struggle.

Still, he was rather pleased to be able to wreck something of the Scaled Worm's. Everything was entirely too pristine.

It didn't escape him after scrubbing off layers of dirt, sweat and blood that there were dark circles lining his eyes and a thinness about his mouth he did not recognize. His neck throbbed with every shift of his shoulders. When he finally managed to get into the tunic, adjusting the collar caused it to twinge a sharp slice of pain through from his jugular down to his finger tips.

Stunned more by the sudden occurrence rather than the pain he stared at his hand, studying the wide palm and long fingers, the nails chipped in places where he had struggled to find grips climbing into the crevice before the storm.

The wasteland had been no picnic. He still felt a touch of dizziness when rising too quickly and when he listened to his heart beat with his palm to his chest he could hear it's strange off beat, more worrying than anything else.

Still, when the knock came on the door and he found one of the girls standing there with her head bowed before him he had stepped out to follow her into the dining hall after getting lost in the maze of the palace at her heels.

Watching her walk in front of him had given him plenty of time to study the leather choker on her neck until he could see the raw painful scabs that seemed to permanently open whenever she moved her head. The leather was sharply edged not soft, it was at once an instrument of torture and a sign they were unlikely to be able to have fade once the scar took place.

It was a slave collar.

It made sense then when the woman did not raise her eyes to look at him nor said a single word, motioning with one hand towards the double doors of what he assumed was the dining hall he moved to step inside, glancing back at her just once before stepping through.

She had not expected that, it was clear as the shock washed away the loathing on her face. Her features so forgettable with so many others dressed identically had been twisted into hatred so intense it had made him pause, impressed, unnerved but mostly confused.

Before he could say or do anything she had vanished, rushing in a quick walk down the hall and Lord Utterance called from within the chamber.

Frowning, Sasuke stepped through the door, closing it behind himself.

The room was elaborate as the rest of the palace, longer than it was wide, with a table that could have seated all of the palace slaves and then some but was only set for two near the head of the table.

Tall backed chairs lined the empty expanse of the table but even as he approached Lord Utterance he could see they had made enough food to feed everyone as well.

There were water fowl and guinea, roasted pig drenched in fruit juices and turkeys stuffed with all manner of dried fruits and nuts then bathed in honey butter and herbs. Side dishes were numerous in beautiful lacquered black bowls speckled in silver and gold flecks like the heavens. Tiny star shaped white grains that smelled of roasted almonds and coconut butters steamed fresh from the pot. Soups sat in warm black cauldrons simmering with wide flat candles like pancakes beneath the cauldron's black feet, burning with dozens of wicks.

Fruits took up the space between all the dishes, elaborately placed on fronds of herbs and aromatic flowers. The smell alone was enough to hit him like a hammer.

Recognizing dishes that he had only ever seen at home he paused and settled slowly onto the chair that had been set for him.

The blonde young man from the entrance clad in blue came at his elbow with a decanter of something blood red and thick. Sasuke stared at it for a moment, anticipating with some growing distrust that it might be blood.

Lord Utterance watched as Sasuke turned minutely to the boy as he bowed, keeping the decanter carefully level.

"Would the Lord Star wish to have some wine?"

Smiling broadly now Lord Utterance motioned for the clear stemmed glass to his right. "Do not fret, Lord Star. Wine is made from the blood of fruits not virgins. It is a spirit. Would you deign to drink with me today?"

With a barely visible nod Sasuke allowed the man beside him to pour the wine, noting with some disgust that he did not wear the slave collar like all the women he had thus far seen.

"Excellent. We are celebrating, after all. My master the Scaled Worm is very eager to meet with you and whatever makes our master eager...?" He let the question hang and as the blonde man finished pouring the wine he pushed his spectacles back onto his face with one pale finger.

"What makes our master eager makes us eager." He recited dutifully, eyes kept carefully on the floor. Impressed that he could be revolted before a feast so awe inspiring Sasuke looked away.

"His eagerness does not match my impatience. Where is your master? I wish to speak to him tonight." He paused, allowing his black eyes to slide towards Lord Utterance. "Now, in fact."

Lord Utterance sighed, twining his fingers before his face as though contemplating a difficult problem. "I understand your desire, Lord Star. I cannot change my master's plans however. He is happy to have you as a welcome and honored guest of his domain. Until that time as he is able to meet with you."

Sasuke's simmering silence was reply enough and clearing his throat he motioned to the feast set before them. "Please, let us indulge in the hospitality of my master, yes?" With a clap more women appeared, their brown dresses and black collars making them a myriad of clones as they moved to stand beside the table, serving utensils moving to carve at the dishes to serve the two men.

"Is there anything I can do to make you stay more comfortable? Perhaps you would like Kabuto here to take a look at your slave? She looked fairly starving. Slaves are hard to come by, and he has a knack for setting ill people right." Lord Utterance paused as he chewed on his first bite of boar. "Or wrong, depending on what our master requests. Isn't that right, Kabuto?"

The young man bowed his head, hands tight on the wine, face impassive.

Still without having taken a single bite Sasuke stared in silence at Lord Utterance, mouth a thin drawn line of disinterest. "I don't much care. I suppose if he has the time he may as well."

Smiling wide, Lord Utterance gave a nod, chewing slowly before sipping at his wine glass. Sasuke watched, feeling his chest constrict as the red liquid flowed up into the Lord's mouth, leaving his thin lips a glistening red.

"It will be done."

If he had not felt close to starving Sasuke doubted he would have managed to eat anything at all. As it was he took a few mouthfuls of the things he found most familiar, including a grain he had been fairly sure only grew on his home realm before excusing himself with a shimmering hiss of magic that allowed no arguments.

Led back to his room by another silent brown clad woman bleeding at the neck he closed the door only to pace impatiently within the borders of the room's marble floor. Hand rubbing anxiously at his neck, he winced at the throbbing ebbing and flowing like the tide.

In the end he lay down for a moment on the overdone bed, throwing pillows on the floor with disdain, aiming to wait until the palace had largely gone to sleep before creeping out to see where Hinata had been hidden away and if she was safe.

It was a testament that he did not realize the depth of his exhaustion that he drifted off to sleep, and did not wake until the first rays of Solatta shone brightly through the window pane.

* * *

Amaterasu had been housed not in the stables so much as in a shed outside of the stables among the tackles and old riding saddles no longer used, too frayed and decaying for upkeep.

There was no light and so by the shining glow of the moon and stars and the twirling dragonflies outside the window in the bushes Hinata had sat on the floor of the shed with his silky bony head in her lap, mildly disgusted but still filled with affection as he chewed with unbridled gusto on the slab of meat and bone that Anko had provided.

Anko herself had been unwilling to near the shed, shaking her head with dislike. With a brief and not entirely sincere apology she had left her to her chore, citing that she did enough unpleasant things for her own master to go about taking on more unpleasantness from Hinata's.

Hearing people call Sasuke her master made her feel ill, almost as ill as listening to Amaterasu slurp thickly on the marrow within the bone of his dinner.

Looking up at the palace and it's glimmering lights against the dark of the moon Hinata wondered in which room he resided and if he was okay. Would anyone bother to tell her if something happened to him?

Would she then be enslaved to the Scaled Worm? Passed as booty from one winner to the next.

A trophy.

Half her food still sat untouched but despite her appetite there was no room in her small belly. In the end she had lain on the ground with Amaterasu in the shed and fallen asleep with the horkney as warmth. More protected and serene that she had been in weeks. Where before the wind blew to tear the very dreams from her mind and the temperature dropped dangerously on the Rot next to Amaterasu she was warm as an egg beneath it's mother.

A call, anxious and filled with consternation woke her when the sun was well past the horizon. Rasu growled deep in his throat and a soft snap of dislike from outside the little tackle shed replied. Hinata stumbled to her feet, dusting her clean clothes off with hard pats of her hands and straightening her hair with her fingers.

Standing outside, a good distance from the door of the shed was Anko in her immaculate royal blue. Her face melted into a sigh of relief at the sight of her.

"There you are." Anko grunted, eyeing the rumbling shadow of the horkney behind her. "I cannot believe you slept with that thing. I sent one of the Chattels to fetch you to your chambers last night."

Hinata pursed her lips nervously, closing the door on Amaterasu's face despite his mild whining protestations.

"I did not hear anyone." She admitted softly, smoothing the mildly ruffled white cotton of her tunic at her hips and thighs.

"Well, it didn't eat you at least." Anko grunted. "Good thing I gave that starved thing a great big chunk of flesh for it's supper. I need to escort you to see the healer."

In the brightness of day Hinata could see the corrals behind the tackle shed and the stables standing bright and white like the rest of the castle. Made of stone and wood and metal so permanent in comparison to her family's wood and paper ancestral home which always needed things replaced and rebuilt.

"A healer?" Hinata blinked in the bright light. "I am quite well, thank you..."

"I'm sorry, but I have been instructed to take you, I cannot disobey." Anko looked at her steadily and some of the steel with which she had faced the three Chattels the night before flared in her eyes. Seeing no escape but for to be forceful Hinata swallowed, thinking of Sasuke's instructions with a twist of her stomach.

"If...you insist."

"Come," Anko motioned. "Let's get away from that demon beast. You Hawk Eyed are keen on herbs and medicinal plants, are you not? Kabuto has plenty to keep you busy."

* * *

"I am afraid he is still indisposed, Lord Star."

Something about the easy way in which Lord Utterance replied to Sasuke's menacing look in the morning made him think that he had prepared his reply long before the dawns even broke.

"Is that so." There was no question in his tone, just fury.

"I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience to you of course, but like all the people who serve our Lord, I do not question him." Lord Utterance waved a hand at the vastness of the gardens in which they walked so slowly it was vexing Sasuke enough to have sparks of magic snap and pop through the air in intermittent snaps. "I am glad, however that you were willing to join me for this pleasant morning walk, Lord Star."

"What I desire is an audience with your master. I do not care for sight seeing." Sasuke snapped. His head was pounding, his neck throbbing an almost constant pulse of pain and a look in the mirror after waking had told him the rest had done nothing for him. The darkness beneath his eyes was the same if not worse and although always fair he was downright white now. His skin was translucent, shining faintly on his forearms where the silver blood pulsed through his veins.

The panic of waking and having not seen where Hinata was had thrown him out of his room in a fury and despite being mildly confused by the elaborate twists and turns of the palace he had eventually found himself back in the receiving hall he had first seen upon arriving. There Lord Utterance had stood, almost as though he were waiting for him to arrive to usurp him for the hell cursed walk.

"I do wish I could grant your request, Lord Star." Lord Utterance bowed his neck in a long swan curve, waving his hand with a flourish beneath the thick red silk of his robes."I do wish it so. Perhaps we can have some entertainment to take our minds off this waiting? Come, I believe I might have something that will be enough to distract."

Blood lust had not come upon him in some time so it's rush through his veins was dizzying. He watched as Lord Utterance wandered on chattering endlessly about something or other while Sasuke pictured in his mind the most painful way to rip him apart.

* * *

The Dispensary was a room somewhere near the bowels of the palace. There was no rhyme or reason to the way the structure seemed to come from the mountain side. Like the stalagmites in caves back home the palace was a mess of sharp icicle shaped towers. She craned her neck up trying to find the highest point and failing as she followed Anko in and through endless dimly lit corridors made of raw stone pulsing with the soil magic and the coolness of having never seen direct sunlight.

They arrived at a door that was unremarkable as the rest they had passed, stepping through without only a brief knock of Anko's knuckles on the wood. The room was small, but the blonde she had seen the night before beside Lord Utterance looked at home in it's chaotic dimness. He had made good use of the space by fitting every possible inch of wall with shelving. There were beakers and bubbling things in a myriad of strange colors on any available surface, including one black thing in a pot of ceramic white that looked oily and bubbled thickly like tar.

Herbs hung from the stone ceiling in bunches, along with drying roots and mushrooms that were placed strategically where the sun flooding in through the window reached them.

There was only one window flat against the long but narrow rectangle shaped room. It faced the sun rise and so the brightness of the morning light flooded through the carved wooden grate that had been placed in front of the glass.

Hinata studied the shadows it made on the ground and the walls, curving fiery swirls that covered her hands and face in a dark pattern.

"This is where Kabuto makes all his magic potions." Anko stated and the needling tone had the remnant touch of familiar teasing. The blonde, who was clearly Kabuto shot her a look that had no venom despite his frown. "Not mine, hardly any of it belongs to me."

"The discoveries do." Anko continued stiffly. " _He_ cannot take those away from you."

Hinata watched in silence, blending into the room, moving slowly out of their way as Kabuto put his quill down among the disaster of his table. It was covered in parchment and pens, ink stones and diagrams. There were metal contraptions for measuring, an abacus in bright purple, blue and yellow beads.

This was the study of a scholar, and with curiosity she approached, riffling through some of the papers with her sharp gaze as discreetly as she could.

"There's nothing he cannot take away from me." Kabuto muttered very quietly and Hinata felt that he had not meant for anyone to hear the words.

"Regardless." Anko snapped, changing the topic abruptly so that Hinata glanced up at her, aware that she was now the displeased focus of attention. "She looks skinny as a rail to me. I bet you the star starved her through the trip in the wasteland. Why don't you get her something to help fatten her up a bit. I'll fetch some thing to break fast." She pointed at Hinata then. "Listen to Kabuto, he will get you feeling right as rain. All right? This is a blessing, that your master allowed him to see you."

Hinata frowned slightly, puzzled. "Sa- er..." she swallowed. "He said I could be seen by a healer?"

Anko shrugged. "Maybe he didn't. Maybe he just didn't care. Better for you that he not think of you at all, really." and without another word she disappeared.

Kabuto watched her leave with a soft sigh of mild irritation before turning to Hinata and patting the clear space at the table next to him. "Have a seat, yes?"

Uncertainly Hinata did as she was told and pulled herself onto the counter high table awkwardly, watching as he pulled instruments from a wooden box. There was a long cone shaped thing made of a metal that shone like Sasuke's silvery blood and reminded her of a trumpet. A long glass vial the size of a chop stick and filled with a bright orange liquid came out next as well as jars of things she recognized. Antiseptic oils and anti inflammatory droughts, suspensions for headaches and herbs that brought one back to clarity when sniffed.

"I am quite well, I assure you." She murmured finally when Kabuto took the cone in his hand and turned to her expectantly.

"The Rot has a way of waiting some time before attempting to take your life. Likely as not there's sand and the decay in your lungs." He motioned for her to let him put the cone on her back between her shoulder blades and she watched as he placed the small end to his ear.

"Breathe in deep."

Blushing, Hinata did so, aware of his hand on her shoulder making her fight the urge to push him off.

"Hm." Puzzlement tinged the quiet of his voice and she felt the circular pressure of the cone shift to a different place on her back.

"Breathe in again."

Complying Hinata eyed the door, hoping that Anko would return shortly.

"Odd." He said nothing more, but moved to the thin glass vial with the orange liquid, requesting she put it between her lips under her tongue.

The strangeness of the appointment didn't seem to stop there, and as he continued to poke and prod her with different strange object she sighed, relieved when Anko returned carrying another heavy laden tray covered in dishes.

"So?" She asked with a soft smile as she placed the tray beside Hinata on the table. "How bad is it?"

Kabuto frowned, scribbling things furiously into a leather bound notebook, pausing only to push his spectacles on his nose with his free hand. "It's not."

Hinata slid off the table and moved towards the food, her stomach once more asking for sustenance in a strangely unfamiliar pang of hunger in her gut. Ignoring thoughts of Sasuke's silvery veins beneath his skin she took a bun from the tray and took a bite shyly, watching Kabuto and Anko from beneath her bangs.

"What do you mean?" Anko blinked. "You gave her the drought already?"

"No." He shook his head. "There's nothing. Her lungs are clear, there's no fever, no infection." He glanced curiously at Hinata for a moment, watching her chew slowly, heat rising to her cheeks as he stared. "She's just... underweight."

"Anyone can see that." Anko grumbled, shoving a bowl of something that looked thick and creamy covered in honey and a sprinkling of seeds in a confetti of colors at Hinata. "Eat the coconut cream before it warms. It's best cold."

Sighing internally Hinata complied, picking up the wooden spoon and taking a dutiful bite she relished as the coconut and vanilla flavors exploded on her tongue.

"Is it the Hawk Eyed blood though, I wonder..." Kabuto muttered, mostly to himself as he continued to scribble, mostly ignoring Anko's searching looks. "No one comes off the waste without spitting up blood. I thought for sure she would be developing the cough by now- unless, did your master fly here?"

The two blue robed bodies turned to her and Hinata swallowed thickly, face burning. "No."

"We would have seen the approach long before we did then." Anko murmured, biting on a nail as she thought. "How very odd."

"People often arrive ill, then?" Hinata asked, for the sake of seeming surprised as them. Kabuto made an impatient noise of assent, bent over a book covered in letters and figures Hinata did not recognize.

"They crawl here." Anko continued, studying Hinata with a renewed sense of interest. "They come bleeding from the waste. Blood pouring from the mouth, ears and nose, coughing so hard the blood explodes right beneath their skin like fireworks." She touched her cheeks, as if remembering one such explosion of crimson under a layer of flesh.

Hinata stared, thinking of the darkness of her last week, Sasuke's silent unwillingness to converse on the topic and the faded and worn memories of him kissing the silver into her mouth.

"I am... I am very sorry to hear that." She whispered finally after a long silence with only Kabuto's pen scratching making any noise.

Anko cocked her head at her then, smiling sadly. "I think I rather like her, don't you Kabuto?"

The blonde stiffened as he looked up, flashing a look at Hinata that was brief before hiding behind adjusting his spectacles carefully.

"Certainly." He murmured, and Anko grinned devilishly. "It does help that she's rather pretty doesn't it?"

Hinata felt the sudden burning of her ears that signaled she was blushing hard and Kabuto himself had turned a soft rose petal tinge. Ignoring Anko's statement he began to put things back into the wooden box on the table after wiping them down in a acrid smelling solution when a knock on the door interrupted.

Puzzled, Anko peered out into the hall and a few tersely snapped words later she was glancing back inside.

"Lord Utterance and the Lord Star are viewing the gardens." She winced, adjusting the thick navy sash around her waist. In the movement Hinata caught the glint of a sword hilt hanging within the depths of the fabric and she straightened, curious.

"We best hurry then." Kabuto sighed, looking at Hinata expectantly. Confused again she stood. "Hurry?"

"To the gardens. I have a bad feeling they will want us with them when they reach the Killing Slab." Anko grunted irritably, storming down the hall so fast Hinata had to trot to keep up.

Lamenting the uneaten portion of her coconut cream she followed, finding the resentment of having to listen without question more and more grating as time passed.

"What... is the Killing Slab?" In her mind she pictured a block of wood thick and coated in the endless stain of blood from animal butchering. She had seen flesh foods all over the kitchens and so she figured somewhere on the grounds the same process she hated seeing in her Villa's courtyard must happen somewhere.

Kabuto and Anko glanced briefly at each other as they walked ahead of her. When Kabuto did not respond Anko sighed. "It is the training arena... for the Scaled Worm's guard."

Questions rioted within her mind then as they led her around the palace grounds over smooth grass lawns that seemed strange and unnatural to her eye and flower beds too pristine to be useful. There was nothing about flowers that Hinata disliked but the practical part of her mind could not fathom devoting endless rows of dark rich soil to the cultivation of blooms that did not provide something to people.

The Scaled Worm, clearly had no such worries.

Anko and Kabuto moved as though there were something tailing them and with Hinata close at their heels they passed through an archway of vines sprinkled with polka dotted blooms in blue and yellow. As they passed Hinata snatched her hand back from touching them, startled to see the vine creep eerily forward, twisting it's long elegant fronds as though to touch her back.

"Keep your hands to yourself if you don't know what you're looking at." Kabuto muttered not unkindly, his hand on her elbow, leading her through the cobblestone path behind Anko who was almost at a run.

"The gardens are beautiful but nothing in this place is kept here for the simplicity of looks. Everything has a purpose."

Hinata tried to look around, catching glimpses of fountain courtyards lined with benches and water lilies that floated on their rippling surfaces. Tall bushy trees made passages that twisted and turned, vine covered walls seethed and hissed as they passed, shifting as though tickled by the wind although there was hardly a breeze to be felt in the quickly sweltering heat of the two noon day suns.

"I think I hear them." Anko hissed back and Kabuto slowed to a walk, releasing Hinata as though suddenly remembering he had been tugging on her arm. Arranging his robes carefully about himself he followed after Anko and approached only a step behind her as they turned a corner past a brick wall shaded by a thick vine brown and leathery with fruit shining as marbles in the deepest red Hinata had ever seen.

Swallowing she followed after the other two and paused, staring. Where all the other clearings in the garden had been dotted with more blooms or fountains this one was spread wide and clear except for a thick marble slab half the size of the courtyard of her home and shining so bright it ached her eyes to look at it as it reflected the midday light.

Across it's pale expanse Hinata caught sight of two figures, one familiar with it's glimmering black feathers and the other decked out in the blood red silk that shifted as a soft breeze rippled through.

"Ah, Kabuto, Anko." The Lord Utterance called across to them. "About time."

The two now silent, stoic figures before her bowed from the waist down and moved rapidly to approach Lord Utterance. Hesitating, Hinata squinted across the wide plane at Sasuke who was ignoring her completely.

Moving the way she would if approaching a wounded creature she came up on his right, and tried to meld into the greenery behind her, frowning.

He was pale, so pale she could see the silvery patterns of his veins along his neck and jaw. In the harsh light of Solatta and Luminatus at full joy the dark circles beneath his eyes were unmistakable and frightening. Heart pounding Hinata swallowed, fists tight at her sides.

Thoughts flickered through her head as the others talked, Lord Utterance doing the bulk of the chatting. It was not until she was nearly pressed to the trunk of the tree behind her that she noticed the three Chattels from the day before, all six of their eyes fixed on her simmering with unveiled loathing.

Stunned by the expressions on their nearly identical faces Hinata jumped.

"Go on then." Lord Utterance was sighing, flipping a paper fan out of his sleeve and beginning the languid lazy motions of one overheated but too elegant to bother actually using the fan to any advantage. "Let us show the Lord Star some of the sport of our master, yes?"

Anko and Kabuto bowed, moving towards the smooth slab of marble robotically, removing their outer navy robes as they did so, tossing them carelessly off the arena.

With a gut wrenching tightness she stared as the sword at Anko's hip became visible without her flowing blue outer robe to hide it.

 _It's called the Killing Slab._

A twitch of Kabuto's fingers and a sizzling wave of electric heat through the air pulsed with energy . A sword much like Anko's own shimmered to life with a throb of gold sparkles at his hip. Unsheathing the newly minted weapon he faced the girl Hinata had thought to be his friend, face hard behind his spectacles.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he watched Kabuto. It was not an easy thing to create weapons by magic, able to hold shape and solidity. If mastered their wielders were formidable indeed. Unable to ever be unarmed, always capable of modifying their weapon to their need as the situation changed, only limited by their energy and skill.

"Kabuto is one of the Scaled Worm's most prized... _trophies_." Lord Utterance whispered, and his gaze remained fixed on Kabuto even as Hinata flinched from the statement, straining to stay as still as the tree behind her while ignoring the glaring death aimed at her from the women to her right and the prodding from Lord Utterance before her.

Sasuke took his time in replying, almost too long after as though he had not heard and then with a nonchalance that was heavily tinged with tiredness he murmured. "It is impressive that he can mold weapons... for a slave."

Lord Utterance laughed, glancing at Sasuke then shrewdly, mouth wide, teeth glinting wet with saliva in the brightness of the sun. "I do think I rather like you, Lord Star. I do think so. We were very short staffed not long ago and so it may seem as though my Lord keeps a rather unreasonable amount of bodies serving him in this place but really it has only this year been that he has outfitted the palace with proper slaves."

"Where does he steal them from?" Sasuke's question was bored. "Does he purposefully find them all to look the same?"

Again the laughter rang from Lord Utterance's lips even as Anko and Kabuto clashed. Hinata watched, listening to the words being spoken between the two men while her sharp eyes stared with growing alarm as Anko twirled, her blade sharp enough to hiss through the air, setting off sparks of broken magical molecules with every slam of her sword onto Kabuto's own blade.

Soft, and breathless like a rabid dog's pant she heard her earnest demand. "Kabuto, damn it, fight back." It had been a private comment. A whisper in the fray.

"Yes, Kabuto." Lord Utterance seemed unfazed by the fact it had been a private conversation. "Fight back."

The blonde grunted hard, breaking apart their stalemate with a clatter of metal and spinning sharply drove his elbow into Anko's side. The cry from her mouth was loud and she stumbled blocking his incoming blow at the last second and rolling out of the way to gather herself, sword shaking slightly. One hand remained on her torso where Hinata was fairly sure Kabuto had broken a rib, judging by her wince.

Lord Utterance paid them no mind.

"My Lord does not _steal_ people like a common criminal." He shook his head mildly. "That is below him. He need not do so. They came to him."

"He has volunteer slaves?" Sasuke's sarcasm was acid in the ears. "How charming he must be."

The chuckle that escaped Lord Utterance again held both amusement and mild irritation. "They come and leave their women, their children and beg for his indulgence. These slaves you see are all part of an agreement. Their people failed to deliver on their end of the bargain and as such, their lives are forfeit."

Hinata glared at the floor, at the smooth cobblestone that lined the marble slab where two people who had been so friendly and amiable were now slashing at each other with swords.

Anko's cry made Hinata close her eyes, unwilling to see the carnage but from Lord Utterance's mild "Oh my!" And the splatter of blood on stone Kabuto had managed to land a blow that was less than playful.

"Oh, stop, stop." Lord Utterance continued as though Kabuto had simply spilled milk or knocked over a vase in his clumsiness. "Don't slaughter her. Look at that mess. Get her down. By the Veil." He sighed deeply and Hinata let out a breath she had not realized she had been holding.

Kabuto had slashed across Anko's side, her sword had clattered to the corner of the white marble and although it appeared from looking closely that it was but a flesh wound the blood still dripped down, garish and bright against the white marble.

It was imperceptible but Kabuto's frame shook minutely. With a flourish of his wrist the blade in his hand disappeared, exploding into sparks that drifted lazily away as he marched towards Anko and heaved her up into his arms.

"Put her over there somewhere." Lord Utterance grumbled, motioning under a tree. "Pity, I was rather hoping to get a bit of sport. Anko is not in her prime today, clearly." Lord Utterance sighed with disappointment, glancing at Sasuke who was perfectly still beside him, and in that moment the Chattels moved.

They had not lifted a finger through the entire ordeal but as one they stepped forward, catching the Lord's eye as they moved together like a brown centipede to stand beside Hinata.

Smiling Lord Utterance turned to Sasuke. "What about your...Hawk Eyed?"

From her periphery Hinata could see Kabuto look up sharply, staring at her even as his hands put steady pressure on Anko's side. Sweating and pale Anko herself glanced at Hinata, wincing.

Sasuke looked as though he only just realized Hinata was there, turning away with a bored expression. "What about her?"

"I hear that the Hawk Eyed are rather exceptional of fighters- next to the Stars of course. Shall we perhaps give her a go on the arena?"

Cold, thick and churning slid itself into her very marrow and Hinata clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering.

"It would hardly be fair for Kabuto." Sasuke sighed. "She is rested, whereas he has just maintained a sword for a strenuous bout."

"Fair? Well if we're talking fair then perhaps we should wager?"

"What sort of wager?"

"How about if Kabuto wins we do not discuss my Lord's absence again until he decides it is time for him to show."

Sasuke's scoff made Lord Utterance smile thinly. "If your slave girl wins... I show you some of my Master's most prized treasures."

"I have no interest in your master's knick knacks."

"Oh?" Lord Utterance mused. "Not even if they perhaps are from your home realm?"

Sasuke's long pause was accompanied by a flexing of his shoulders and Hinata stared at the tight grip of his hands clasped together behind his back. Breath still in her chest she waited, desperately hoping, praying for his voice to say the words he needed to say. Namely one. No.

With a feeling of the the world falling away beneath her feet Sasuke sighed. "Fine."

"If you think Kabuto needs rest then perhaps she needs a warm up, yes? They are not in Kabuto's league and therefore not in that of the Hawk Eyed but surely my three Chattels will do nicely?"

The girls moved forward, bowing low and it was only then that Hinata noticed the short swords strapped to their backs. Heart pounding so fiercely in her chest it was cracking her sternum Hinata sucked in air as quietly as possible, hands sweaty.

"Three against one?"

"Three _slave_ girls against a Hawk Eyed. You never know. Perhaps she will impress me so much I may make a recommendation to my Master and then she could be of value to him and therefore to you." Lord Utterance raised a slim black brow. "What say you?"

The silence lingered for several breaths and sighing Sasuke turned away. "Is this what people of the Veil do for entertainment? I no longer wonder at it's dying."

"Come, come. I know of the slaying games in the Heaven's, Lord Star. I know of the tests your people put their children through. You yourself must have endured the horrors of the passage to full fledged adulthood." Lord Utterance laughed silkily. "Unless... perhaps you are concerned for her safety-?"

Sasuke's puzzled dark eyes fixed on the Lord's pale face confusedly. "And why would I care about that?"

"Excellent." Lord Utterance clapped his hands cheerfully. "Chattels, go on."

Sasuke turned swiftly then, moving to stand by Hinata as Lord Utterance shouted instructions at the three girls to mop up the blood left over by Anko.

"Hinata."

Pale lipped and wide eyed she stared at him, trying to understand what was happening, why he would say the things he was saying.

Sasuke searched her face for a moment, noting the clean clothes, the pale glow of her cheeks and the smooth curtain of her black hair. For a moment he had to keep himself from saying something damning, from running his hands though the long length of black at her shoulders.

Tiredness was eating at his bones, pain was throbbing at his neck and briefly he wished for the tears offered so willingly before on his tongue.

"A..are you ill?" Her eyes fluttered from him and then to the Chattels. Could the illness be confusing his mind, could he perhaps be feverish and unaware of what he was sending her out to do.

Ignoring her question Sasuke glanced back over his shoulder to see Lord Utterance waving at the Chattels, motioning for them to use Anko's discarded robe to scour the blood from the marble.

"Give me the knife." He extended his hand and Hinata's fingers flashed to her hunting knife at her back, wide eyed. "But... Sasuke, I-"

"I need you to lose."

"What? But... but they'll..." Hinata let her eyes dart to the girls, catching the sharp glare of hatred from one of their identical faces.

Eyes alighting on Kabuto approaching cautiously Sasuke froze, a frown on his face. Panic fluttered in his stomach at the confused look on the blonde's features.

"I said." He bit out sharply, drawing Hinata's attention back to him with a soft jump. "I need you to lose. I do not want you insulting our host and ruining any chance I have of bargaining with him. Do you understand?"

Hinata stared, unaware of Kabuto behind her, lips parted in growing despair. "I...I...but-"

"Get up there." Grabbing her arm roughly he propelled her towards the marble slab, hissing rapidly in her ear.

"You said you trusted me. Do as I say."

With the painful pulse of her blood pounding in her jugular Hinata stumbled onto the marble stone slab, scrambling to climb as he practically threw her forward, glancing back at Kabuto to see him frozen in place, face as smooth as an undisturbed pond.

Lord Utterance tsked softly under his breath as Sasuke walked back to stand beside him, straightening his tunic with hands he hoped were showing none of their shakiness.

Hinata kept looking resolutely forward, fighting the urge to stare at the one she had perhaps started to count as a friend. The sting of his grip on her arm ached as she faced the three glaring girls before her, their short swords drawn.

From behind her she could hear Lord Utterance make a sound of surprise. "You took her only weapon." It was not a question, more of an admiring statement.

"I do not feel like damaging the property of someone I intend to do business with." Sasuke replied simply.

Clenching her jaw tightly Hinata walked into the center of the marble slab, watching as the girls spread out around her, listening intently to the clink of metal in their hands, the hiss of their soft soled shoes on the stone, the rustle of their wide flowing brown skirts and their steady breath.

Closing her eyes to the brightness of the sun she dragged in a shuddering breath, picturing Hanabi's face, smirk wide arms crossed, shaking her head.

 _"Come now, Sister. This is child's play."_

Beside her Neji appeared, jaw clenched and brows furrowed. _"How many times have you skirmished with all our shadows? How many days of training have you endured? You are heiress. You are Hawk Eyed. "_

Their voices whispered, together. _"For our glory."_

Body shifting slowly to center her point of gravity Hinata lifted her empty hands into the fighting stance of her Clan, tuning her senses to the pull of magic pulsing on the marble and beneath it in the soil.

 _And for those of the Hawk Eyed blood._

Opening her eyes she turned, fixing Sasuke with a look.

 _I can't._

The minute flex of his jaw was all she saw before the Chattels exploded at her as one and there was no one else to listen to, just the pounding of her heart, the breath in her lungs and the determination that she would not die.

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


	12. Innocent Petal

**_Getting eaten alive by this story, ladies and gentlemen._**

 ** _RIP_**

 ** _Ink Child_**

 ** _Much love from the other side._**

* * *

 ** _OH I was going to just leave my AN at that but my darling flamer is back. Here I had thought you got tired of me, sweets. Where have you been? What does SI mean? O_o am I out of the loop of some of your infantile lingo? Or did you just trip your face on the keyboard? It happens to some people. No worries. Love you muchly, dearest.- Inky_**

* * *

She had been young the first time her father had set her against multiple opponents. The courtyard had been busy and she had been embarrassed by the defeat. It had taken hardly any time at all to overwhelm her soundly, earning her a black eye that her mother had been firm should never happen again in training.

Her mother's gaze had turned to Neji then, standing only a few inches taller and with hardly a year more wisdom to his name. But being told before leaving the womb that your job is to do whatever possible to keep the heir of the Clan alive had made the impulse second nature. His Calling had been carved into his bones, and then more soundly into his heart as he grew with his young cousin.

In no time at all Neji begun to drill her, again and again. At that point only Lee had submitted himself into Neji's service and the two boys worked Hinata hard any chance they had. Launching at her without warning. She had learned to feel the incoming flow of kicks and punches, well aimed elbows and flat handed slaps to her ear that made her head dizzy and her eardrum ache.

When Kiba and Shino joined her soon after she had faced all four, twirling bamboo poles first to build the muscles of her wrists and forearms and then weighted staffs to simulate the glaive that one day would grow to be an extension of her hands.

But it was when Tenten finally joined in the last year that the sparring resulted in Hinata's elegant form, in her rapid fire reflexes, in the seeing of weaknesses in her opponent's stance by her blessed gaze. With the four shadows and her cousin to hone all of her senses she had moved from knowing others thought her a weapon to actually being one.

Sasuke had hoped that taking the knife from her would even the odds some. That perhaps without a a hilt in her hand she would find herself at enough of a loss that the battle would mark her less than adequate- that it would keep her from Lord Utterance's covetous eye.

He was wrong.

Had ever seen her at her best? Rested, fed, with all wounds healed and energy fully restored by the blood that flowed within him?

He realized as the battle exploded that he had not. He would remember such a thing as clearly as he remembered his own name. A petal on the breeze twisting through the shafts of sunlight, that was what she was. The Chattels were simply mud beneath her dance.

They moved together, coordinated by an invisible thread and so like links in the same chain they swarmed, blades shifting, slicing through the air as one, blades rising into a pyramid of sharpness.

Hinata's hair flared, a snap of magic ripped through the arena in a hiss of hot and cold air and with a silence more unnerving even than that of the Chattels, she moved.

Behind her one Chattel's sword clattered on the invisible solidity of a half shield, protecting Hinata's back as she kicked hard the sword hand of the girl to her right sending the blade flying overhead, before twisting out of the way of the second blade slicing down on her. Her tunic was baggy on her hips and it flared like her hair as she pirouetted, throwing an elbow expertly into the nose of the one still armed girl not blocked by her shield.

The crack of bone on bone was drowned out by the Chattel's wet gasp and blood erupted on her face as she stumbled backwards. Without giving her time to regain her footing Hinata kicked her legs from under her. With her ears humming a warning she grunted hard, throwing a hand up behind her, the flash of magic throwing another half shield up that sparkled in the light. It erupted like a blast of wind and sent the two girls who had regained their footing crashing into the impenetrable glass.

Their unsteady step was all she needed, muscles coiled within her leggings released and moved with the molten steel grace of predators. Her gaze caught the uneven steps of their boots, the wave of their arms signalling weakness in their sword training.

This was an unfair fight, she felt it in her bones even as she winced against their fury and loathing when her eyes met theirs.

Whatever she had done to earn their distrust, their hatred, it was fueling their movements. It made their limbs ache to bleed her and for that reason alone she needed to end this quickly, before someone was hurt.

She was fairly certain it would _not_ be her.

Releasing the shield as she threw herself at them she ducked, knocking the sword arm of the first girl swinging out of the way with a sharp elbow and with a kick to the torso of the other sent her careening off her feet and to the floor, her sword skidding out of her grip and hissing on the stone.

Suddenly alone to face the hurricane that the Star's waif-like servant had become, the last standing Chattel gasped, face panicked and pale as she stumbled back, sword evidently useless against the force approaching her.

A beehive hiss of danger at the base of her neck had Hinata ducking, feeling the slice of the third Chattel's blade above her head.

Despite the torrent of blood pouring down the front of her face from her broken nose the slave girl was in the fray, eyes steely with her blatant dislike and Hinata paused, panting on the other end of the marble after rolling away from her vicious onslaught.

The three girls gathered themselves, wiping sweat from their foreheads and blood from their chins, their own chests rising and falling in rapid desperate breaths.

Lord Utterance's laugh from behind them drew Hinata's gaze to where he and Sasuke watched.

"My, my... I will admit I am not completely disappointed by the Hawk Eyed. I had thought perhaps they were all simply a bloated myth. "

Sasuke said nothing, eyes staring at Hinata fiercely, whether furious that she was no listening to his instructions to let them slice her to ribbons where she stood or something else she was not sure.

Choking down the confusion and panic of such a request she gasped, twisting out of the way of the first swing as her enemies moved forward. Tired now of such a pointless battle she ducked beneath their swings, her elbow crashing with the wielder's face, harder than the first time she connected with a nose. It sent the girl reeling backwards in a heap that she did not rise from.

Panting and now anxious to be done she kicked the other sword from the next Chattel, slamming her hand flat against her head and sending her stumbling right off the arena as the agony of her ear drum aching knocked her balance askew.

The last swung wildly, her blade hissing as she stabbed and slashed with no form in her blows. There was no precision to her attack, nothing but the blood pouring down her face coating her lips in a crimson stain of gore and her eyes blazing with hatred above it.

Hinata cried out, feeling the bite of the sword nick her arm as the girl continued her relentless charge, swinging hard. Grunting with the effort of ignoring the bleeding slash, the Hawk Eyed princess kicked hard the moment her eyes saw the stumble, the wild swings opening her opponent to imbalance. The kick slammed into the Chattel's hand and she cried out in pain as the the blade went flying overhead. Lord Utterance cackled as he stepped out of the way of it's path, watching with amusement as it stabbed into the dark soil of the flower bed behind him.

"Excellent!" He mused, turning back to Hinata with interest. "Much more entertaining than that bar brawl Anko barely managed."

Panting only slightly Hinata let her eyes flutter to Sasuke for a moment, pale gaze glinting in the light of the two suns. She had been expecting disappointment, perhaps even contempt at her insubordination and therefore was not prepared for the awe, slack jawed wide eyed shock that had overtaken his pale ill face.

It was her one weakness, and Neji scolded her for it every time she was beaten. Despite the bruises and the losses and the scoldings however, he could never get her to stop trusting and believing that others were as kind as herself.

The bleeding disarmed Chattel threw herself at her back, tackling her to the marble stone so hard the world split into a million sparkling fireworks with the collision of her skull to the stone.

"Oh my." Lord Utterance mused, watching as the wounded slave girl slammed herself on top of Hinata, straddling her waist, hands shoved hard at her throat.

It took a moment for the dizziness of the blow to her head to fade enough for her to start thrashing beneath the Chattel's weight, legs kicking, hands flying to peel the fingers from around her throat.

Beside Lord Utterance Sasuke watched, the pulse of his heart so loud in his ears he could hardly hear. Everything in him ached, poised like a strung bow to release him onto the marble, to throw the creature from Hinata, to tear the being harming her apart.

Calmly, he cleared his throat.

"Do you intend to destroy my property? I removed her only weapon for a reason and yet here you are, souring me to your master."

"I thought she was of no importance." Lord Utterance mused in surprise, turning to look at Sasuke with mock shock.

Out of his periphery Sasuke watched as Hinata struggled, attempting to shift the slave girl's relentless weight on her torso, her arms feeble from the crash of her head to the ground.

Behind Sasuke, Kabuto and Anko watched in horror, mouths pressed tightly into thin lines, turning away as the Chattel pressed on Hinata's throat harder and harder.

"I have few enough possessions," Sasuke replied smoothly. ",to at least want them in working order."

Lord Utterance hummed thoughtfully, as if pondering.

After an eternity of silence he sighed. "I suppose that is true enough. Chattel, stop."

There was no stopping her, the girl panted heavily, her hoarse gasps smattering blood on Hinata's face with every grunt. The hatred on her face was demonic, her eyes blood shot and her guttural animal sounds as brutal as Hinata's flailing limbs and straining hands trying to rip her off.

Lord Utterance frowned. "Chattel. _Stop_."

Kabuto rose, moving rapidly before Sasuke allowed himself to climb onto the marble. With a kick that sent the brown clad girl sprawling onto the marble in a heap the blonde removed her from Hinata. Coughing hard and gasping Hinata choked, blinking the black patches and stars from her vision, laying prone on the arena.

"Ah, there it is." Lord Utterance sighed absently. "She breathes."

Beside him Sasuke was decidedly _not_ breathing.

"Excellent, Kabuto. Please, get these women to stop bleeding over everything. What a mess it makes. Lord Star, shall we continue?"

Tearing his gaze from Hinata, Sasuke nodded. Numb fingers twitching at his sides as he moved to follow after Lord Utterance already heading back along the cobblestone towards the palace.

"I figure the wager was a little stacked on my Master's end. I wouldn't mind showing you the gallery after dinner, if you are interested. Surely you'd like to see the priceless remedies my master has gathered over a thousand years?"

Sasuke hardly heard, watching out of the corner of his eye as Kabuto helped Hinata sit up slowly. Her pale eyes focused with shock and disbelief on him as he turned the corner and left without another word.

* * *

It did dawn on Hanabi that leaving the Valley without a single heir to the Hawk Eyed Clan was exacty what her battle axe of a grandmother had hoped and dreamed. She was not callous enough of course to think that she would want her own grandchildren dead but out of the way of her political ploys was great and if they removed themselves then so much the better.

Still, she could not come to terms with the idea that she had done something wrong when Konohamaru smiled at her the way that he did the night of their departure. Heavy laden with sacks of food they had had to pilfer from the cellars over the course of several days and armed to the teeth they had thought their escape had gone unnoticed.

Until of course, her mother's own father had found them at the bottom of the hill towards the Villa, standing in the halo of a dragonmoth lamp that flickered and twitched with the shifting insects within it. Beside him was her own father. Hiashi's face was carved of stone, his jaw tight and his frown deep.

It was only when she heard him speak her name, the crack in his voice and the tremble of his chin that made her realize perhaps she had misjudged him.

"I give you the blessings of our people and the stars who guide your path this night." Her grandfather whispered when Hiashi was unable to continue. Shaky wrinkled hands had risen to consecrate her forehead with a soft touch. Long ago, so long that it was hardly remembered there had once been spells cast upon the children of powerful clans. The Hawk Eyed then had been known by Hyuuga, a name long lost to the passage of time and the fame of their blessed eyes.

Back then the children not to inherit but of direct line to the title were marked on the forehead with a spell with which the touch of the heir could bring them to their knees in agony. Forced into the service as shadows without choice this touch was a sign of power. The loathed gesture of a hand to the forehead turned into a blessing only after the end of the cruel regime, a thing her grandfather had always lamented did not happen sooner. His own grandfather had borne the shadow seal on his forehead.

Now he placed his soft trembling fingers to his granddaughters brow, a sign that without a spell he anticipated her work to be for the clan, her life for it's survival, her courage for it's flourishing. And trusted her to do what she saw fit to achieve those goals.

"Let the stars of heaven bless you as they blessed our ancestors." Turning to Konohamaru his ancient gaze hardened not with displeasure but with the acknowledgement of one man to another. "You have one of our most prized possessions in your company and therefore in your care." He let out a shaky breath, perhaps not entirely due to his age. "And you have our utmost confidence in your ability to serve faithfully."

Konohamaru's bow was short, his throat closed and refusing words of thankfulness to pass although it had not been necessary. His eyes so wide in his face had gifted all the emotion his tongue was unable to convey.

That had been weeks ago, and Hanabi had to admit that although she worried for the fate of the Clan and the Valley should she fall it was not until the night she heard the ululating calls of the invaders that she wondered if she had made a mistake.

For the first time in her life she was in Konohamaru's company, alone and with no eyes to see, no mouths to whisper. His respectful distance never wavered, her determination to keep their friendship and camaraderie comfortable kept her calm, but for the snatched moments when his gaze would linger, when his touch would send her insides to fire within her.

If only for that, for the moments of hyper heart beats and anxious thoughts both painful and beautiful she was glad of the choice she had made, even if she fell in the doing.

The falling seemed much more likely the night of the invader's march. Huddled together on a cedar branch Hanabi had watched as what seemed like shadows shifted in the darkness of the trees while Konohamaru rested. They moved with a liquid grace, like oil on the surface of slow moving water. There was never a sharp edge or a jutting twist of limb or bone.

And then the smell of the rot on their skin hit her like a brick to the face, causing her nose so used to the beautiful scents of resin and earth, wild wind and summer flowers to ache. Her shudder, which she had been unable to suppress woke Konohamaru who shifted beside her on the branch, freezing before speaking at the touch of her hand on his mouth.

In the dark she could see as clearly as a cat, her pupils dilating so that her usually white eyes loomed dark and ominous at him, directing his gaze towards what she was certain was men shifting through the foliage slowly.

She need not have bothered, after a moment a woman's irritated voice called out.

"That's enough. The perimeter is as safe as it's ever going to be. Set up watch and gather wood for a fire. We're camping here tonight."

Only a handful of trees away the figures moved and began the quiet murmurs of a camp settling for a rest. There were wounded among them and Hanabi winced to hear a cough from more than one that made even her own chest ache.

"We're out of Kabuto's drought." The woman continued. "You're going to have to just bear it. We're hardly two weeks from the Valley, according to the map."

Hanabi's fingers were suddenly being gripped in Konohamaru's firm hand, even as her mouth went dry and her heart lurched in her chest.

"At least there's plenty to eat." Someone murmured, and then another voice grunted something that sounded like a curse of displeasure.

"Look on the bright side, at least... We could be dead or starving-"

"Or wandering around in the woods when the rest of our people slave away for that cursed demon worm."

The silence that descended on the camp was only broken by the rustle of branches grating wood, the start of a fire crackling after much rubbing of stick on rough bark.

"Focus on our mission." The woman snapped suddenly, her voice crackling like the creak and snap of the branches being eaten by the fire. "The white eyed witches will know what we need to hunt down that damn star." The sound of her spitting on the fire gave a sizzle as the saliva landed on hot wood.

"If we're going to do anything about this, focus on the goal. Getting there, and getting back with the heads of all the Hawk Eyed on spikes."

Konohamaru didn't have to be told, silent as the light of the moon shifting eerily through the branches of the trees he slipped his pack back onto his shoulders, waiting for Hanabi to unfreeze from her stupor, watching the camp and the fire, the shadows. Her eyes ripped through the bracken and leaf, searching out bodies, counting heads.

Dozens. There were dozens.

When she turned Konohamaru did not ask where they were going, did not question her lithe deadly movements or the choice of her direction as they headed determinedly back the way they had come.

Her sister, the star, her cousin would all have to wait.

She had a Village to protect. Her Calling now sang from within the marrow of her bones with it's urgency, there would be no denying it now.

* * *

There was something wrong with him. Something more than just tiredness, more than just the blood he had passed on to Hinata in the wasteland. He stared at himself in the mirror and watched as the water trickled down his face, gathering into droplets at his chin.

In his chest his heart lurched and stuttered, aching in a way that he knew had something to do with the damned Rot Clan and the fang that had carved into his neck. Whatever it had achieved was now rearing it's ugly head. A hand to his neck did nothing but soothe the same way that putting pressure on a gushing wound soothed.

It was possible that Hinata's tears had slowed down the poison and made him think he had been healed. Bruises had formed at the place where the pink scar had once been, three dark shapes in a swirl that made him grind his teeth just to see in the mirror.

If it was poison then it made sense that his blood would have been less potent in Hinata's body, dragging on it's healing over the course of days when it should have restored her at the touch of a silver drop on her tongue.

The other option of course was that his hatred, the tinge of black on his wings so deep and single mindedness in destroying his brother was starting to stain him in more ways than just his wings.

Gifted as he was with angelic heritage he should have been able to fight a poison, and the tears Hinata had shed should have begun to redact the black from his feathers. Her willingness should have lightened the load of his hatred on his heart.

Nothing was going as planned.

A knock on the door of his chambers had him glaring with distaste. He could not look at any of the slave girls. Their similar faces and dark hair, their collared necks and brown dresses were all too similar. All he could see everywhere he looked was the same vicious woman who had thrown Hinata to the marble ground, climbed onto her torso and forcefully begun the process of squeezing the life from her throat.

All the training of his many years on the moon had had to work hard to keep him in his place. His jaw ached with the clenching of his teeth, his heart already feeling weaker than usual had throbbed behind his sternum as he watched, realizing with the calculated knowledge of a tactician that he was badly outnumbered. Attacking the slave girl would have been simple, but he was no fool. Kabuto was a force to be reckoned with.

And Lord Utterance, for all his sly feminine manners had the same walk of a panther on the hunt and the cunning slick gaze of a snake. There was something about the man that made Sasuke's nerves fray. It would be, he knew it in his bones, his last mistake to underestimate him, or anyone in the palace.

He had walked straight into the lion's den and dragged Hinata with him.

Another knock on the door echoed and growling softly he grabbed a towel off the rack by the stone basin and rubbed his face dry as he walked to it, ripping it open with enough force to startle the young girl standing on the other side.

This was not the usual young woman in brown, collared and silent, fuming with contained hatred. This was a child.

He stared, stunned and completely thrown by the little girl. Hardly reaching to his ribs she flinched from him, curling dark hair cascading down her back in rivulets of brown, face pale as death at the sight of him.

They stared back and forth for a moment until realizing she was not going to be able to gather herself he murmured. "What is it?" trying his best to keep his voice from biting.

Her flinch made his stomach seize and looking at the marble she gripped her hands together tightly. "You are requested in the gallery...L...Lord Star."

Unwilling to be quippy with the youngster Sasuke sighed, having aimed to tell whoever came to go away. Wondering what kind of punishments Lord Utterance might have for the slaves when they misbehaved or did not accomplish the tasks that he demanded of them made an image of Kabuto and the girl Anko slashing at each other flash in his mind.

Without another word he stepped back inside, only stopping to gather the bow and arrow he had stashed in the wardrobe before closing his door and nodding at the young thing. "Lead on." Yes, it would seem that Lord Utterance was indeed as cunning as Sasuke feared him to be.

He was running out of time. The ache in his neck hinted that strength was waning and so then did any protection he could offer Hinata. He would see the Scaled Worm, he would see the monster whether he wanted to be seen or not, and if things went sour...

He would have to trust that Hinata had the strength to protect herself, and that the urge for freedom would afford her the courage she would need to fight her way out of this prison and back home.

Picturing her elegant dance on the marble, the fierce calm of her face and the unwavering instinct of her movements he allowed himself a moment of wistful yearning, wondering if he would be able to see more of the elegance of her body in battle or if when he left her to face the Scaled Worm it would be an unofficial goodbye. For her sake, he hoped it was the later.

* * *

"Hold still." Kabuto's face was white as a sheet but he worked with the steady hand of someone experienced in his field and Hinata was glad of it.

Ignoring to the best of her abilities the dizziness that was still plaguing her after smashing her head so forcefully against the marble ground she helped as Kabuto cleared the table in his Dispensary and together they assisted Anko onto it.

Her hissing winces were enough to have Hinata biting her lip and with her hands bunched in her discarded blue robe she pressed hard onto the wound, confused by Kabuto's panicky movements as he gathered the supplies to stitch her up.

"Stop fussing." Anko grunted irritably. "You hardly cut at all."

Hinata stared wide eyed at her then, even as Kabuto ignored her and dumped his equipment onto the table beside her head in a clatter.

"W...why would he...?" Hinata tried and then stopped, her mind reeling from the battles, the wounds, and the rising nausea.

"He likes the sport." Anko explained softly, wiping the sweat beading on her upper lip with her sleeve as she watched Kabuto thread a needle with rock steady hands. "Since we've been here-"

"Why are you here?" The questions were now rushing out of Hinata and unsteadily she slid against the wall to the floor, burying her hands into her hair at the back and feeling the slick wet of her blood. The blow had been bad, worse than she had first realized. Of course, she had been distracted by the weight of another human trying to wring her life from her throat.

"Why?" Kabuto snapped then, sounding furious and his tone made her look up, startled. "We're here because we have to be." With no care for the fabric of Anko's clothes he was ripping at the blue cloth, making her hiss in pain as he exposed her smooth pale stomach soaked in the blood from the slash across it.

"He took us, sent his creatures after our villages in the mountains. Isolated we had no idea he was coming, that village by village he was clearing the mountain range of clans."

Anko did not interrupt, her eyes closed tightly and Hinata wondered if it was because of the needle he was now holding to the bleeding wound or his words.

"We're here for the same reason you're here. We are _owned_." Taking a deep steadying breath he slowed, glancing at Hinata before pouring something on Anko's stomach liberally that smelled heavily of ice.

"Your master made you fight as did ours. Why are you so confused?" His gaze was sharp as he darted from looking at his work stitching up Anko's now freezing stomach to Hinata's stunned face. "How are you any different?"

Bile rose in Hinata's mouth then. It was hard to say what caused it. Was it the monumental blow to the head? Was it the sight of his eyes so hopeless and scared or was it his words, the ugly tang of truth that ached on her eardrums.

Scrambling to her feet she launched to the door, grabbing the basin filled with rubbish from cuttings and medicine making, vomiting before she could stop herself.

"She's bleeding from the head." Anko sighed, her voice much more calm than it had been moments before Kabuto put the icy liquid on her stomach. "Give her something, what if the Star calls for her and she's vomiting?"

Wordlessly Kabuto did as he was told, leaving the barely begun stitches along Anko's torso for a moment to rummage on his heavy laden shelves and among his books for a tonic.

Breathing hard Hinata leaned against the door frame, trying to piece together everything and finding she felt there were pieces missing from the puzzle. Despite it all, despite her incredulity at Sasuke's behaviour she felt the pang of want in her mouth and her mind shuddered with the undeniable desire for the silver ichor that passed through his veins.

Disgusted with her thoughts she looked up as Kabuto approached, extending the small vial in his grip. "It's not the best we have, obviously. The gallery is where all the really potent things are but he would never allow us to use them despite our wounds." Irritable he turned back to Anko's stitching.

"But the root of the star flower should alleviate the dizziness and nausea. Unfortunately there's not a lot I can do about the bloody skull the Chattels managed to give you."

"Those daughters of dogs." Anko hissed then groggily. "They should be ashamed."

Hinata uncorked the vial with a pop, sniffing at the contents and finding there was no scent. Nothing flowed from within and the liquid seemed to be an innocent watery broth shade, cloudy but not unpleasant.

Considering Anko's complete trust in Kabuto despite his sword having just slashed across her stomach Hinata downed it, surprised at the watery bland flavor.

Moments later she was thankful she had not hesitated. The knock on the door had Kabuto sighing heavily with wariness, refusing to turn and stop the stitches he was placing along the smooth stomach of the girl on the table.

"Please, open it."

Worriedly Hinata did as she was told and nearly stumbled back, stopping only when she realized that this girl was not one of the Chattels. Her neck bled slowly from the leather collar around her neck and with eyes firmly pressed to the ground she waited, silent.

Opening the door wider so that she could see Kabuto and Anko Hinata stepped back, unnerved by the silence from their guest.

"What is it?" Kabuto snapped, glancing back over his shoulder. His hands were bloody up to his wrists and absently he shoved his glasses back up his nose with his forearm.

"Lord Utterance requests your service for the wine during dinner, and the Lord Star requires his slave." She glanced from beneath her lashes at Hinata standing unsteadily by a shelf.

Silently Kabuto stared at the slave, jaw clenched until he turned to Anko.

"I will send one of the women to finish this."

"Yes." Anko nodded, glancing at Hinata who was straightening her clothing with shaking fingers and a determined expression. "Go with her. I will join you when this is done."

"Nonsense. Do not leave here-"

"I will join you when my stitches are in place." Anko interrupted firmly. Kabuto glared a moment longer and then pushed away, moving to rinse his hands in a bowl of water that sat for that purpose on one of the shelves.

"Where are they now?" He snapped at the girl impatiently, drying his hands as he moved towards the door.

"The Gallery." The girl replied simply.

"Go to the kitchens and fetch someone to finish Anko's stitches. Right this moment, don't dawdle. And-" Kabuto paused, turning to Hinata and finding he did not know what to call her. "What is your name?"

Feeling finally the clearing of her mind that the medicine promised start to take root in her head she looked at him, smiling weakly. "Hinata."

Anko made a noise that was likely supposed to be a laugh although it lacked all amusement and seemed choked. "Sunshine." She whispered. "The thing we need the most in this dark place."

Kabuto did not say more, only motioned for Hinata to follow and as she did she wondered what she could possibly do to change the brutal ways of those living in the palace of the Scaled Worm. It seemed to her that they would need more than just sunshine.

They needed the whole sun.

They needed a pure star.

* * *

The Gallery as Lord Utterance called it was not so much a chamber as a well decorated cave.

A skylight made almost entirely of glass had been carved into the roof letting in the afternoon light and with it could be seen the rough walls of black and gray slate that made up the arches leading to dozens of smaller clearings where pictures hung on walls in gold frames, images that sometimes seemed to move when you turned your head to look away.

There were portraits of people that Sasuke found no interest in, and scenes from the Veil that he had witnessed. The red and black leaves of the iron tree saplings. Waterfalls that coursed from giant silkweed trees, causing ponds to form at the roots of their ancient hosts.

The waste, painted to look dramatic on canvas with the sky so blue and the soil so red it was almost beautiful.

Almost.

"Ah, there he is." Lord Utterance mused as he approached. The little girl had showed him the double doors to the gallery and when he had opened the door had fled nearly at a run, reminding him of the first slave he had had lead him to dinner only the day before.

"Come, come. There is much to see in the gallery. Although I think the thing that would interest you the most would be the-"

'I need to see my -" Sasuke winced, furious with himself and the hesitation that he hoped had not been heard in his voice. "-slave."

"Oh, certainly. After dinner I will have Kabuto-"

"No." Sasuke snapped, and his temper finally seemed brittle enough to make Lord Utterance pause, mouth no longer doing the fake smile he seemed so fond of. "I need to see her now."

Curiosity seemed to take a back seat to survival and Lord Utterance looked behind him where the three Chattels stood frozen, heads bowed and cleaned up as though they had not just been trying to skin Hinata alive hardly an hour past. All of them bore bruises on their faces where Hinata had managed to land her defenses, and one of them was purple on so much of her face it looked as though she had smudged the juice of plums along her nose and cheeks. Sasuke had a sick feeling this was the one who had sat on Hinata's chest with hands tight on her throat, ignoring the blood pouring off her own face for the pleasure of destroying another.

"Chattels." The single word had one of the young women moving down the hall and away to do Sasuke's bidding and Lord Utterance turned once more to face him with his jaw set in an uncharacteristic seriousness.

"There is no need to be armed, Lord Star." His eyes flickered to the bow on his shoulder and the quiver strap across his chest. "Although the bow itself is beautiful. Is that a token brought from your home realm?"

Sasuke stared at him for a long moment. "No."

"Ah." Clearing his throat Lord Utterance motioned down the hall. "Let me show you some of the more interesting things in the-"

"I have no interest in-"

" _Yes_ , I know. However I think this might make you reconsider the game you play now." The tone of voice which had always seemed on the more playful and careless side had dropped away and Sasuke frowned, following the Lord down the hall in which he vanished with his remaining Chattels close at his heels.

The black slate darkened the world in the halls where the skylights were not present and so eyes took a moment to adjust from brightness to darkness and back as he passed from the marble floored clearing filled with paintings of the Veil into another lined with tall ivory shelves carved from a stone so white it seemed to be bone.

Each item was placed carefully on a satin square or circle depending on what suited it best and as Sasuke looked at the dozens of trinkets he felt his skin tighten in disgust.

"Although everything in here is... priceless..." Lord Utterance murmured, motioning to the dust covered objects. "It is this particular thing that is the most valuable."

On the shelves were tiny wooden boxes, orbs of glass that seemed to shine with planets and stars, bowls filled to the brim with liquids that seemed to glow. Plants grew from pots and spilled down the length of the shelf to the floor, curling and curling and curling into themselves even as he watched, only to bloom, and die, wither and restart again before his very eyes.

Lord Utterance paid no attention to any of the things that had clearly been gathered over hundreds of years, priceless treasures that someone had obviously traded for something the Scaled Worm alone could do.

"How does one accumulate so much not through thievery?" He snapped, and Lord Utterance let out a laugh that had none of his faux amusement in it. At the center of the room he stood before a dais made of black lava stone like glass. Rough edges had been left in place to tear at skin that was not careful on approach and sitting on a cushion dusty with it's lack of use was a small vial of glass, filled and corked, sealed with wax but even through the dust Sasuke started.

"There is no need to steal, Lord Star. Not when people come bearing their most prized possessions willingly for the sake of something else." He shrugged again.

"This," He continued ",is filled with the tears of an angel child, innocent and freely given and therefore able to heal almost anything."

Sasuke watched as he picked up the vial, dusted it off and set the light that shone from within free to sparkle in the room.

Angels rarely wept for pure reasons. There were only a handful of times where joy could draw blessed tears from their eyes and song from their mouths. One of which was the cry of a star being born. The most innocent of tears held the ability to heal almost anything, save perhaps death but still not many bothered to bottle it, for it came at a price not many were willing to pay. This Sasuke knew, had seen the bottle his mother had of Itachi's tears and his own. It had been given to him after his sudden orphanhood, recovered among many other things from his home by Master Kakashi. He had thrown it away.

"To be used." Lord Utterance smirked. "It must be given by someone willing, of course. For it requires an exchange. If undertaken with an unwilling pair it could easily kill one or both- it's all very complicated my master understands it much better than I can explain. But I show you this." He shook the bottle lightly, setting sparkles rattling about inside. "Because I think perhaps you come to my master with no plan and no tokens with which to bargain. What can you offer him that he could possibly want, hm?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed slightly, the electric pops so common when irritated began through the room. "What makes you think I will discuss _my_ business with your master with you?"

Lord Utterance smiled crookedly.

"I, as his speaker am often well versed in his tastes and moods. One might even say his desires. I had thought that since your wings were not pure and therefore not as useful as those of a less hateful being then perhaps the creatures you brought with you had some special quality with which you wished to trade. But it appears from the reports of my servants that the horkney is a half wild thing not even fully grown. A full grown domesticated beast might have made my master at least curious but alas, this one seems to be attached to you and you alone." He shrugged.

"And then there's the slave girl."

The throb on Sasuke's neck pulsed a deep ache that settled into his shoulder and felt as though it radiated down his chest and shoulder blade. Determinedly he stared at Lord Utterance, his hair wild with the unsteady breeze of his magic sluicing through the air.

"A Hawk Eyed comes with some interesting aspects, he might be intrigued in her simply because of the blood in her veins. I received a report only moments ago telling me that she had no adverse effects at all in the Rot, or so Kabuto says." He cocked his head. "I wonder how that came about? You would not have been sharing your ichor, now would you?"

Frowning instantly Sasuke glared. "Why would I care how she managed not to die on the Rot?"

"Well, perhaps my master's curiosity for powerful things, surviving things, has begun to rub off on me." Lord Utterance shrugged coyly and played with the bottle in his hand, watching the light coming from within twinkle and shine.

"If he requests the girl at least then you will not have qualms about giving her up, no?"

The Chattel which had been sent to fetch the subject of their conversation returned and bowing slightly to Lord Utterance he sighed before Sasuke could formulate an answer.

"Well, it appears dinner is ready and I don't know about you but that walk has me famished."

Without giving Sasuke a moment to say anything more he was gone, chatting away as though Sasuke were right at his elbow very much interested in his conversation.

Glancing about the room one last time Sasuke froze catching sight of an unsanded edge of white ivory shelf and wincing.

What he had taken for stone the color of bone was something much more sinister. Like the spear heads of the Rot Clan the opaque white was deceiving but it did not take a genius to figure out that what he was seeing was skeletons taken apart and used as building blocks. Not when jaw bone protruded from one shelf, the teeth of the deceased glinting in the light.

Bottling his fury for the coming conversation he stormed off after his host.

* * *

She had not yet seen the dining hall and so the sight of food making a giant table so heavy laden made her start.

It was somewhat nerve wrecking that the smell of the cooked meat made her recently nauseated body ache with hunger and as she watched slave girls move about setting out dishes for two and filling decanters with spirits she couldn't help but wonder why the Scaled Worm would do what he was doing. What did it serve to keep a star as turbulent and impatient as Sasuke waiting?

Stiffly Hinata stood next to Kabuto who instructed her in whispers to keep her head down, to say nothing unless spoken to and to not move if at all possible.

"Sometimes just scratching your nose catches their eye." He grumbled with a tone that spoke of experience. "Next thing you know you've been beaten within an inch of your life and you can't even remember why."

This statement made the confusion in Hinata flourish all the more. She would have said even earlier in the morning that she did not understand this. Sasuke had never treated her in such a manner, not even at the very start of their trip when her dislike of him had been about as tangible as his dislike of her.

Then again, she had the terrible throb of a cracked skull on the back of her head to contend with now, negating her opinion, making her wonder if perhaps she had been naive.

They entered together, Lord Utterance speaking endlessly. Coming up behind him Sasuke was a storm cloud where he was a butterfly bedecked in jewels.

His magic was awake and flaring and upon his entry every spine in the room straightened and shoulders tightened. Including Kabuto who stood beside her, eyeing the two Lords with wide eyes behind his spectacles.

Sasuke's eyes fluttered over the room and landed hard on Hinata. It was impossible not to look back at him when his gaze held so much weight and beneath it she quailed, straining to keep herself from wincing, or glaring back.

Part of her was terrified that he would ask her to do another impossible thing, something else to line her neck with bruises and her head with blood. The other part stared in wonder at his face so very pale, his magic so raw in the air, the circles beneath his eyes so stark.

Something was not right, it nagged at the back of her mind, a sliver so small she could not see it only feel it digging painfully out of sight.

"I do not intend to wait any longer." Turning away from her with renewed energy Sasuke's gaze focused on Lord Utterance and with his focus so then did his magic rise. Hinata watched, able for the first time not to just feel but see the pops of static that flickered through the air, the rustle of wind that drifted in swirls around Sasuke made his hair dance and his clothing whisper.

Lord Utterance did the foolish or brave thing of ignoring him, settling in his chair with a sigh.

"Lord Star, please. I only do as my Master requests, surely you must understand-"

It was the wrong thing to say.

Kabuto's cry was stunned and Hinata would have cried out herself if the air had not slipped out of her lungs in terror. The blast of magic that came from Sasuke's body was a heat wave and a cold front clashing, tearing at their hair and clothes, exploding with the thunderous chirping hiss of electricity and lightning.

Flat against the wall Hinata watched as the food, all the effort and time that had been placed on the table went scattering in a clatter over the floor, smashing as the hurricane of his magic rampaged through the room.

She had never seen him like this.

She had never understood.

 _Hanabi... what fools we were._

His steps were calm in the chaos as he moved towards Lord Utterance who stayed carefully frozen in his chair watching with some growing semblance of awe as the lightning intensified within Sasuke's hand. The muscles of his forearm and wrist stood to attention, within the cage of his fingers light spat and hissed, and as he lifted his fist he glared through the power at the Lord now immobile before him.

"Take me to him now, or I will end you where you stand and find him regardless. It will be easy after all the slaves see the red smear that will be all that's left of you. Surely then they will be encouraged to speak."

It was difficult to breath as the magic spun in a hurricane through the dining wall, shaking the chandeliers above and setting candles clattering to the table and marble, splattering on the overturned dishes on the other side. Sasuke waited a beat longer as Lord Utterance seemed to swallow his terror and carefully replied.

"But... Lord Star if you could just-"

It should not have moved so easily but either his temper had enraged him beyond his usual strength or Hinata had never realized the amount of care he took handling her. The kick to the table, long enough to seat dozens had it cracking, it's own weight so heavy that when he slammed his boot to the side and sent it toppling over the centipede length of it snapped the wood in the middle. Its thunderous crash joined the peal of the rushing wind and the crackle of lightning in his hand as he grabbed a hold of Lord Utterance by the throat, lifting him overhead.

"Enough." The dancing shadows on his face made his dark eyes pits as the lightning chirruped and thrashed in his grip, eager for slaughter.

"A-all right!" Just as his toes were about to leave the ground Lord Utterance tapped on Sasuke's arm, a polite furtive sort of touch that didn't much fit the situation. "All right, I- I will take you to his laboratory. I will do so now." He half choked out, eyes wide.

Kabuto's arm had somehow snaked around Hinata's shoulders and he pressed her back into the pillars of the room, hiding in the shadows.

With a snap the wind died and in the sudden silence Hinata could hear the whimpers of women in the other corner. The slaves meant to serve cowering from the force of Sasuke's magic. If it had been hard for her, a user of the earth's energy to breathe, then she could not imagine the pressure they would have endured in his presence.

"Hinata." Sasuke's snap as he dropped Lord Utterance gasping and rubbing his throat made her start, Kabuto's grip around her shoulders tightening.

His eyes froze on her then, dark eyes flickering to Kabuto and back to her with a momentary flash of confusion before he removed the quiver and tossed it onto the ground at her feet with the bow.

"Stay here."

Panting hard Hinata stared, heart hammering in her chest as she watched Lord Utterance frown openly at him and then glance at her, a gleam of something nasty flickering in his gaze.

The nagging feeling intensified, her warriors sense so long questioned buzzing like a beehive in her head.

"P-please let me... let me come with you."

She must have moved as if to step forward, Kabuto's grip on her shoulders tightened, drawing her back and for a second she almost elbowed him off. The silence was broken only by Lord Utterance dragging in ragged breaths as though he were still recovering from Sasuke's choking hold when only that morning he had been unfazed by Hinata being pinned beneath his own Chattels.

In the quiet Sasuke's dark gaze softened, and Hinata felt the world grow quiet, if only for a moment she watched the subtle tightening of his lips and felt in every particle of her being that she was missing something, that there were things being said she could not hear.

And with a breath the moment ended.

Sasuke turned away impatiently, glaring at Lord Utterance. "Move."

The Lord scampered towards the door, Sasuke right at his heels and without looking back he murmured, almost as an afterthought. "Stay there."

The door closed, and the moment it did the women in the corner were dashing out of the dining hall by the servants entrance, sobbing into their hands, holding each other, their collars reflecting the light of the evening suns coming in through the giant windows now splattered with the remains of the banquet.

"What were you doing?" Kabuto snapped, turning her around and giving her a shake. "Why would you ask to go with him? Are you mad?"

Hinata stared, stunned by his outburst. "H...he is not well, I can see it, I can tell- something is..." she stopped, shocked at her words, at all she was giving away in her confusion. Swallowing the rest she pushed his hands gently away stepping back.

"You should be glad that he left you here, glad that you are of no value to him." Kabuto muttered picking up the bow and arrow that Sasuke had thrown on the ground so carelessly.

Silent now, Hinata watched as he studied the careful carvings Sasuke had spent so long on, tracing them with his finger slowly.

"Anything anyone cares about the Scaled Worm covets, and what he covets eventually he owns." He lifted his gaze then, watching as Hinata's eyes widened, moments from the last two days falling into place at his words.

"You should be going." Slowly the blonde extended the bow and quiver to her, jaw set. "This is your chance, while he is busy."

Hinata took the weapon in a trance, slung it on her body with her thoughts rushing in her mind like flooded rivers breaching their banks. Pressing her hands to her eyes to think she breathed slowly. The familiar weight of the bow and quiver on her shoulder anchoring her to the marble, clearing her mind.

"Hinata, did you hear me?" Kabuto's voice was impatient, his grip on her elbow hard as he shook her. "This is your chance. You could run now, and get away. You could escape."

Sasuke had called her a trophy, had kept her usefulness in her tears a secret, had asked her to lose a battle to mark her as unimpressive, unworthy of attention, had downplayed her in every way possible.

 _"Is that so? Here I thought perhaps you came to offer her as a...down payment, for my Lord's assistance."_

 _"I doubt he would take her."_

 _"I suppose it would depend first and foremost on what her value was to_ _ **you**_ _."_

"Hinata. Listen to me." Kabuto shook her again, and Hinata snapped out of it, looking past him at the doors where Sasuke had just vanished.

"Listen." Taking her chin Kabuto turned her sharply towards him. "Right now you have a chance to get out of here. You have a chance to get away. Anko and I can help you but it must be now. While my Master destroys yours. He will be so giddy from the victory it will be days before he remembers you exist but only if you go. Go now."

Hinata shook herself free, taking a step back in surprise, her heart hammering in her chest so hard it hurt. "Why would he...what makes you think that they're going to-"

"Did he face the Rot Clan?"

Mouth wide, Hinata searched his face, saw the seriousness in his gaze, felt her stomach sink within her, twisting cold and painful.

"Y..yes."

Kabuto's eyes held no shred of jest, no inkling of distaste at the thought of Sasuke's imminent fall. Cooly and with the same knowing firmness of a scholar on a subject he felt was factual he sighed.

"Then the Scaled Worm won this fight long before it even started."

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	13. Mine

**_Thank you, thank you for so many lovely insightful reviews and reactions. They make me so very happy._**

 ** _Also, to my darling who pointed out that I suck at summaries: No hurt feelings hun, lol! I know I'm so bad at them! NewRageInc was lovely enough to do me the favor of writing me a new one! Send all hugs and kisses her way!_**

 ** _I want to answer all my reviewers on here all the time and I have to restrain myself because my AN would be so long if I let myself do that. So please know, I do read the reviews I so want to show my appreciation. Please accept this chapter as my huge thank you! So many lovely kind people read this stuff and I am very thankful for that._**

 ** _Much much love, Inky_**

 ** _P.S This is the chapter that I began this story with... this is where the whole thing took off. So this has been rewritten, cropped, tossed, restarted so many times. This and the very first chapter are the two things that started this world. *throws it at you all and hides*_**

* * *

Breathless and stunned Hinata stared at him, wide eyes darkening with comprehension, with terror and panic. Below it, swirling like a pit of snakes in murky water rolled anger, muscled and vibrant.

" _What_... did you say?"

Kabuto looked at her long and hard, his eyes hidden in the glare of the evening suns on his spectacles, mouth pursed with displeasure.

"Surely you must know that there is no way your master will escape this encounter unscathed- alive even?"

Hinata felt the air entering and leaving her mouth in soft half breaths that tasted of acid. "Kabuto-"

"The Scaled Worm is a powerful opponent, and although your master is a formidable foe, let us be honest." He faced her then, surveying her paling face, her lips pressing thinly together. "This is your chance to escape, before the Worm thinks of you. Before it considers you a good piece of property to maintain. Run. Run while they are engaged in tearing each other's throats out."

The room dimmed, a cloud thick and gray rolled through the sky and over the twin suns above in the blazing orange and red of the heavens. The shadow slid over the dining hall, covering the splatters of food in it's opaque hues as it passed through the giant window panes.

The lanterns glimmered more brightly on the walls and Hinata's gaze slid to the double doors behind Kabuto where Sasuke and Lord Utterance had vanished.

"My..." Hinata began, and balked at the word master. Jaw tightening she fixed Kabuto with a straight unwavering stare. "Sasuke is not as easily bested as you seem to think." Slowly she took a step back, and Kabuto stirred, his spine straightening. His gaze flickering from her fingers twitching faintly to the tightness of her shoulders and back.

"No one has defeated my master in nearly a thousand years." He whispered, eyes widening as her gaze darted from his face to the door behind him again.

"Do not be a fool." His body shifted and Hinata flinched at the sudden spread of his stance, at the rising hands already half curled into the unlocking pattern of magic. "You would do well to run from here! As far as you can get before they realize you have is a kindness I am doing you!"

"Kindness." Hinata whispered back, eyes darting over the dining hall, double checking that no servants lingered to feel the tightening of magical molecules floating in the vastness of the space.

Kindness was Sasuke's arms holding her in the storm, letting her bury her face into his neck and breathe in the scent of magic and mint. Kindness was his irritated glare at being hounded by Amaterasu but still patting his head whenever he came close.

Kindness was him arming her before going into the battle that might end him, while wounded and silent. Unwilling to demand the tears that would heal him lest it put a target on her back.

 _Oh Sasuke... please... forgive me._

"Let me through those doors." She turned back to the blonde in time to catch his unabashed shock. More firmly she drew in a breath, "Let me through, Kabuto."

"I did not think you so foolish." He shook his head, and the unlocking twist of his fingers had the whole room singing with magic. At his hip the sword appeared in a sudden tangle of bright light, long and curved, shining a deep gold hue.

Hinata bit her lip, her hands loose at her sides as she contemplated what she was about to do.

"Please, don't make me fight you to get through. I beg you."

On the other side of that door Sasuke stood alone. Even if he had figured out what the Scaled Worm had done to him with the people of the Rot he would still be blind sided.

Something about the way the blonde smiled sadly before her now told her there was a high chance that it was clever. Clever enough to have him sure of his master's victory. If he was so certain he must know enough about it to make an educated guess.

 _I need to get to him. I need to get to him **now**._

"The Star is the End. The one who will destroy us all." Kabuto snapped, and his hand gripping the hilt of his magicked sword flexed expertly. Despite his scholarly appearance Hinata had not forgotten the familiar way his body moved in a battle dance.

"You would risk your life to save one who calls you slave? One who would end all of our lives if he accomplishes his goals? Surely you must see the lack of sense in that."

Hinata breathed in deeply, and the molecules of magic in the air began to dance to her call. Kabuto let his mouth fall open as he watched her hair begin to shudder at the touch of an unseen breeze, her pale eyes narrowing as her fingers flexed with the tension of an incoming bout.

"That is not _all_ he is."

It was the last thing she said before his eyes grew sad and his jaw set in determination.

The explosion of her magic was a blast of cold air and the torches went out in the fury of it. Her fingers flared as she threw her hand out and a shield sprang to life around her in the familiar see through bubble of glass. His sword slamming home against it sent a lightning storm of power through the dining room and the blast of energy scattered dishes, food and candles chaotically over the floor.

The once expansive space seemed suddenly too small and Hinata strained hard, watching Kabuto grunt against her shield, teeth gritted and eyes narrowed, muscles tight at his neck and throat.

"I cannot let you pass. I cannot let you in there. He would know I let it happen. He would make me pay."

Hinata let out a soft breath of indignation, digging deep into herself, into the parts of her that were raw and furious. The part of her that could see Sasuke splayed on the ground in a pool of silver, his limbs unmoving, his chest still.

With a grunt she shifted, her shield wavered and disappeared. Kabuto's sword slammed down at her as she dodged, kicking hard into his chest and sending him flying backwards with a choked gasp of air. The hilt barely held between his desperate fingers.

Before he could gather his feet beneath him Hinata flung herself over the overturned half of the table and threw herself beneath the tablecloth covered end still standing. Behind her the room groaned with the pull of magic from his sword. The gold of the blade shuddered and spit out a long endless chain glowing the same warm honey hue. It crackled with energy and killing intent, slashing at the marble where she had stood and cracking it as Kabuto brandished it over his head.

Breathless she scrambled beneath her cover. Listening as he landed on the table top above. It groaned beneath his weight. The whipping gold chain lashed loudly and she flinched as the debris of more marble floor cracked and exploded to her right.

Heart pounding she scrambled further down the table length lined with chairs slightly askew, her brain struggling to come up with a plan, a strategy, something.

Sasuke had known.

He had left the bow here instead of taking it with him. He had armed her should things go badly. The bow had never been for him. He had said as much.

 _What a fool I am._

Stone shattered to her right and she winced. So much care he had taken with her in the last few days. So much thought. Hinata grit her teeth. She flinched as Kabuto's golden chain slammed into the marble again and again, shattering smooth pristine stone to dust and flecks of razor sharp rock went flying.

"Come out!"

His shout was furious, as if he couldn't believe she would be so foolish as to fight him. To want to battle for a prize as feeble as freeing her captor.

A small tired part of her mourned for him, for his desperation and fear. For his inability to understand.

Grabbing the bow and quiver Hinata drew an arrow, pressing her fingers to the black feathers of the fletching. For a moment she watched as a chair was pulled from beneath the table violently and thrown to shatter out of the way by the golden chain.

 _Sasuke._

She would get to him. She had no option. She had told him her new Calling was his well being. She had spit it in his face with her hurt feelings and she was a Hawk Eyed heir. There was no room for going back on her word with the blood that pumped in her veins.

 _I'm coming._

Feeling more calm than she had in days she rolled out from under the table, arrow notched, eyes fixed on Kabuto's open target. Her magic fanned her hair in a mess of darkness around her face as it imbued the arrow with her desires.

Kabuto's eyes had a second to widen and his lungs a snatch of air to breathe.

And then she let the arrow fly.

* * *

The pulse in his neck was starting to become less of a throb and more of a crippling agony. The moment his hand had landed so forcefully on Lord Utterance and his hanging weight had made the muscle of his arm strain he could hardly ignore the deep ache that pulsed through his nerves. It was the undeniable shift of an iceberg with the bruise at his neck being the tip and the unavoidable mammoth hiding beneath his skin, invisible.

Training for years under the tutelage of Obito and Kakashi had not prepared him to be anything other than stubborn, at least. And so, swallowing the flinch as the pain intensified and ebbed like the tide he followed at Lord Utterance's heels. Around them the indiscriminate snap and pop of electricity lit the hall with flashes of magic every few steps as a reminder that beneath his calm veneer there was a tempest brewing.

The Chattels who had vanished as he and Lord Utterance departed the Gallery appeared further down the hall, standing in a row like dolls. As one their eyes turned studiously in the direction of their Lord's rapid steps and together they moved from the wall and to the side bowing low. He ushered past them and took the door knob in hand.

The door was itself inconspicuous in the sense that it looked like all the other doors that lined the hall every dozen or so feet. It's wooden face was painted white, it's trim was a gaudy overzealous gold and the metal knob shone with a recently polished glimmer.

"Ensure that we are not disturbed, Chattels. I daresay our master will want privacy for this unexpected engagement."

The tone was not to be ignored and Sasuke's magic rippled from him in displeasure despite his face remaining calm.

"I suggest you step forward. You are required less and less the further on this journey we go. Don't make yourself become less than useless and fade into irritant." It went without saying what Sasuke intended to do with anything that vexed him.

The Chattels remained still. Their eyes flickered from their Lord to the Star in their midst with displeasure. Lord Utterance did as he was told and moved within the room, face expressionless and the last thing Sasuke saw was the three disarming smiles on the bruised faces of his slaves.

Frowning deeply he turned away as the Lord closed the door behind him and froze at the sight of what awaited him.

The door frame sunk in and meshed with the bones of the mountain. Before him lay the buzzing and whistling sounds of a jungle, with the heat and the humidity covering his already sweaty skin in a layer of moisture.

Light was dim, and tinged a cool blue despite the heat. Looking straight up to find it's unsuccesful source Sasuke felt himself stagger within once more. The room, and he realized a large part of the enormous endless palace was not palace at all but jungle. They had carved the heart of the mountain out, making it an empty cone that gaped to the heavens above and allowed the weather of the high peak to tumble down the inside of their hiding place.

This jungle was not young. It had all the twisted vines and wide trunks of ancient beings. The trills of birds he did not recognize and the humming whir of insects that buzzed and called through the thick air. Lord Utterance watched him from the shadows, his red robes subdued to a dull purple in the twilight.

"This is the favorite abode of the Scaled Worm." He waved a hand slowly in an effort to display the vast wild that hid behind a polished corridor door. "Here the sun never shines too bright, nor does it get cold enough to sustain snow." He paused.

Smells of resin and flowers, of wild earth and citrus had wafted through the halls of the palace every few steps and now Sasuke understood why. Of course there had been the smells of the wild in the elegant decadence of the human carved world beyond the corridor's many doors. The palace was but a pretty package, the monster still preferred it's wild terrain.

A foreboding feeling of being prey settled heavily onto his shoulders.

"Follow me." Lord Utterance murmured when Sasuke did not reply and turning away he began the careful trek through the forest, finding a path that was well worn and familiar to his feet, requiring less light to maneuver.

"I would refrain from touching anything if you can avoid it." He added as the jungle sighed and swallowed them whole. "At times things here like to grab back."

* * *

Kabuto's sword took the arrow hard across the blade, the sparks of magic against magic were nearly blinding and he gasped, stumbling back at the force of the projectile, nearly losing his footing on the table as he stumbled.

Hinata had already drawn again as he batted away the magicked arrow and swung his blade. The golden chain snapped like a whip to reach her. Panic lit his face as he watched her twist out of the way in an elegant spin that took his breath away, loosing another arrow at him with the precision and calm of someone determined, and sure. Someone deadly.

With another arrow notched Hinata turned to the flaring coils of golden chain and eyes narrowed the bowstring snapped hard, flaring a silver white of magic as the arrow collided with his own weapon, pinning the chain irrevocably to the marble ground, shattering the stone with the blow.

Stunned Kabuto took a step back, wrenching on the chain only to find it immobile. Eyes wide he turned, just in time to see Hinata notching another arrow, arm pulling back, hair flaring in the force of her magic, the sparkling silver of her power a glittering mess over the arrow as it concentrated on the shaft and metal head. She would not miss, this she knew. She could not. Her blood demanded she hit her target dead on.

"Stop!"

Frozen the two lethal figures turned to the end of the Dining Hall where Anko stood, eyes wide. Breathless and pale, she pressed a hand to her stomach where her recent wound surely throbbed. "H-Hinata! What are you-?"

"Anko." Hinata's voice was low and strained, her arm unwaveringly still and aimed at Kabuto's face. "Please. Tell him to stand down and I will not slay him where he stands."

Kabuto shook his head. "I cannot let you pass. The Scaled Worm cannot be defeated... I will die slowly when he..." His voice shook and for the first time the fear dominated his face, setting his eyes to glowing.

Hinata stiffened, fighting against the desire to lower her weapon.

Anko looked back and forth between the two warriors in stalemate, her hand on her sword more out of habit than actual use. In her state there were few things she could do to stop them. Face twisting in panic she stared at Hinata. "...did... did your master encounter the Rot Clan on the way here, Hinata. Because if he did-"

"They wounded him, but he recovered." Hinata murmured, then more impatiently. "I have no time for this. Let me through or I will-" She strained on the bowstring , feeling her own heart ache at the thought of what she was theatening. Before her Kabuto flinched.

"Go." Anko whispered suddenly, making both Kabuto and Hinata turn to her sharply in surprise.

"If you think... if he might..." Anko stared at Hinata uncertainly. "If you think he can kill that demon. Or even wound him." She grit her teeth. "If you can help him. Go."

Kabuto spluttered. "Anko! He cannot be defeated-"

Hinata lowered her bow, confusion evident on her face.

" _Go_!" Anko snapped, waving a hand at her impatiently. "Go before it's too late."

"Thank you!" Tears welled in her eyes as she rushed past Kabuto who was staring at his comrade with mouth open, disbelief stilling his limbs. He watched Anko's tight grip on her sword hilt, her eyes clear and mournful in the sudden rush of light from the evening suns beyond the tall windows.

"What is this madness?" Kabuto whispered. "How sorely you have disappointed me this day."

"You're not the only one suffering disappointment, Kabuto." Anko smiled back. "I never took you for a coward despite your fear. The Star is the best bet to ever having him slain, you know this. We have waited for this chance all our lives."

With a flick of his sword the arrow no longer magicked to the marble floor released the elegant ribbon of gold chain with a snap.

"I just want to _survive_." Kabuto sighed, shaking his head as he let the magic tremble and break apart into a million firefly lights that faded away in a breath as his shoulders slumped. "I just want to _live_."

"There's a difference you know." Anko's smile turned sad. "Living and surviving. They are not the same thing."

As his shoulders began to shake she struggled to stand before him, ignoring the pinch and pull of her recent stitches as she gathered him into her arms.

* * *

Breathing through the humidity was strangely similar to drowning. Sasuke shoved the soaking locks of black hair from his face with impatience as he followed after the Lord's unwavering trek through the jungle path. Not touching things was easier said than done and more than once he had to raise his magic to stop a creature or creeping thing from sliding around him, oily and dark in the shadows. The darkness was menacing in a way that nothing of the wild on the Veil had thus far been.

They had not been walking for long when the path began to widen and Sasuke eyed the worn grooves that rose in concave raw clay along the path. It was wider than a man was tall laying on his back and smooth as though something large and round had been pushed through it. It had decimated the jungle ground, tearing roots, pushing back greenery with what appeared to be constant travel.

Unlike his usual mannerism Lord Utterance seemed strangely subdued. His walk remained calm and his shoulders straight but where he had continually filled the silence with chatter before this silence in contrast was stark. Sasuke kept his eyes on him. The mild throb of pain at his neck that seemed to never fully disappear anymore had burned to a manageable ache for the time being.

"It is rather a pity that you are not more patient. Patience is a virtue, Little Star. Are angels no longer taught to pursue the virtues with the same vigor that they are supposed to outrun their vices?"

Sasuke grit his teeth hard together at the sudden change from Lord Star to Little Star and felt the pressure around them change with his sudden furious magic.

Words, sharp as blades filled his mouth and stopped before being born, aborted on his tongue when his eyes drifted past Lord Utterance to the clearing before them.

The light from the hole above was no longer blocked by the trees and for that reason he could see the shadowy blue of the inner mountain walls. Up high above was the mouth of the crater that had appeared to top the mountain range. It's insides as well as it's outer lips lined with the icing sugar white of snow.

In the twilight brightness he turned to the clearing, watching as from enormous holes sunk into the forest ground steam rose in billowing clouds. Breathing in spurts and smelling strong of minerals as the clouds drifted.

"It is the heart of the mountain. It burns and so it's anger heats the jungle, waters it with it's mineral rich geysers, strengthens it to grow." Lord Utterance commented, watching as Sasuke surveyed the clearing slowly, noting the hissing spit of superheated water rise through metal grates over the holes to protect against an accidental fall.

One of the indentations was lined more heavily with vegetation and shone strangely in the light. It took him a moment to realize that it was covered not in metal criss cross bars but in smooth hardly visible glass.

Standing just at it's edge Sasuke glared down past his vague reflection into a pit perhaps a hundred feet below carved into the black slate and glowing from was not a geyser, it was a vault.

At the very bottom was the hoard of a thousand years.

Treasure sat in reckless piles. Gold coins, cups, shields adorned in precious jewels. Swords of every kind and make thrown carelessly in heaps. Chests overflowing with glittering rocks covered in dust still able to shine despite their neglect. Clothing, in velvet, silk and embroidered in the same ghastly gold that bedecked the Worm's dominion still draped in rotting piles around the bones of fallen and ignored bodies. It was a pit meant to demonstrate the wealth, the lack of need and the mercilessness of his host. The glass was an order- see but do not touch.

Sasuke looked up, face impassive and eyes dark stones unreadable in the half light. Lord Utterance watched with obvious interest, manic focus on his every feature. The Lord's long thick tongue slid from between his lips and flicked at the corner of his mouth, split down the middle as he slurped it back.

"You need to stop wasting my time." Sasuke's tone was more calm than it had been in days and for that reason alone the Lord raised an eyebrow, noting a difference in his stance and gaze. No more playing.

So be it.

"No one is wasting anything, Little Star." Lord Utterance almost laughed. "You are very unlike your brother, you know this?"

Sasuke's silence spoke his distaste louder than any words he could say. Smiling coyly Lord Utterance sighed, brushing the darkness of his hair back from his shoulders with long fingers that seemed suddenly alien and strange.

"He was a much quieter being when he came through. Although I wonder if that was because he entered _my_ domain with an entourage of mutated half breeds all desperate to protect him. Absolutely dependant on the ichor he gave them like pups to their mother's teat."

Standing perfectly still Sasuke felt his wings flinch as his suspicions were finally confirmed.

"So it was you all along." Behind him a geyser spat and hissed angrily, showering his feathers in warm water that sparkled in the last rays of light coming from the shadowy tops of the crater above.

"Certainly, but let us not be foolish and pretend you did not guess some time ago. What held you back, Little Star? What kept you from ripping the Scaled Worm apart in that Dining Hall?" He spread his arms wide, motioning to himself, face poised with curiosity.

Something about the glittering yellow of his eyes and the slice of black pupil glowing in the darkness where he stood made Sasuke's insides writhe and voice terse he murmured, "I have need of your services."

The Worm's grin revealed at last the flat front teeth of a viper and the incisors long on either side of his mouth, but for the right where one had been broken off at a horrible uneven angle leaving it jagged.

"Ah, yes. Searching for your brother." He sighed, and he cocked his head in a way that displayed how unnaturally flexible his neck was. "Danzo told me you would come, he told me and I did not believe him."

Sasuke's sudden stillness was more of a sign of his shock than anything else he could have done. Dark eyes perfectly still he stared, earning himself another vile grin from the slowly widening mouth of his host.

"Danzo is dead." Sasuke bit out. He had seen the place of his Soul Tree. The dark dust that permeated the heavenly soil which should have nurtured the next generation. His however had poisoned the heavens. A black inkblot in the swimming indigo and navy of the sky. His darkness would take a millennia to be cleansed away from the forest.

"Oh, naive Little Uchiha." The Worm laughed and a hiss lingered as he cackled. "Come now. Did your big brother take all the brains in the family? I no longer have a Soul Tree, and yet here we are, chatting up a storm."

Slowly Sasuke slid a foot back to even his stance, mouth dry as he gazed at the ever widening maw, at the eyes too large now in the man's face. Quickly, fighting through the hollow throb of pain at his neck Sasuke began to take apart this information, realizing with every passing second how much he did not know.

"You're a Profane." A fallen star so happy to embrace the darkness of sin that the Soul Tree succumbed to the vileness and disappeared. Excommunicated or executed were the only two options for such beings, and it had been hundreds of years since the last. Unless he was right, and Danzo like the Worm lived severed from his realm.

Sasuke bit any more words from his tongue and kept silent, studying the slowly thickening body of Lord Utterance starting to press against the billowing red robes.

"Ah." He sighed deeply, closing his massive eyes . "Look at you saying the word like it's something to spit out of your mouth. Did it taste acrid on your tongue? They must have forgotten me if it took you so long to say it. No one speaks of the genius and insane Orochimaru in the realm of angels anymore? I suppose they wouldn't to you. They wouldn't want you figuring out what would happen to you if you didn't die slaying your brother."

Sasuke's jaw tightened then, watching as the robes straining against the growing bulk of the Scaled Worm began to rip. His pale face with grotesque nightmarish features patterned as though wrinkled in precise overlapping ivory skin like armor.

"I know what I am." Sasuke's voice left no room for argument despite the roll of his stomach at the growing stench of the massive snake starting to appear before him. The sickly sweet decay of flesh was pervasive and he was not surprised. Once felled, once dark winged and hateful an angel had only so much time before the hatred consumed him. He had never seen a full transformation, had never even heard of it.

Most died long before this, but if Orochimaru was the Scaled Worm, hoarder of wondrous healing potions and elixirs then it made sense he would have found ways to keep himself alive year after year, century after century. Putrefying himself into rotting animated mummification.

"No you don't, Little Star. No you don't. If you did you would not have come to me. You would not have come searching for your brother. Your wings would not be black because you would know. You would know that Danzo is alive- or at least that's the last I heard from Hell itself. And you would know that when your brother passed through here, much like you searching for a fallen star his wings..." Orochimaru smiled ever wider, gaining height with each passing second as his scales thickened to armor and a frill of black leather reminiscent of Sasuke's black wings flared around his snake head. "...his wings, unlike yours...were white."

"Enough of this." Sharp as a stab of lightning through the heavens Sasuke's magic sprouted hard and fast, ripping the air at his hand and solidifying in a flicker of spastic energy into a long shining katana, angry and bitter. Ready to bite.

"All that comes from the mouth of a Profane is vileness." He lifted the blade, setting himself obstinately against the agony growing at his neck. "Slaying you is a waste of my time, but leaving you seems a sin in and of itself."

Laughter rippled from the snake then, hissing cackles that echoed in the vastness of the mountain's hollow chest.

"Oh, Little Star- how very wrong you are. I like to gamble you see- and in my last bet I hoped to have you brought to me, so I could tear that heart from you and live another century. The Rot Clan left their people and I either got a host of new slaves or I got you on a platter. The odds were so in my favor but it seems I am doubly lucky for _you_ came to _me_. Proving Danzo right you showed up. He will be unhappy that I have disrupted you from your task of annihilating your brother but, no matter." He was panting now, a thick ugly scaled fatness with dripping fangs and rotting coils.

"You showed up here anyway. On your own two feet no less, covered in Rot and talking. Able to even use your magic. That was a little hiccup. But still..."

The Scaled Worm let it's ebony black frill like a mane around it's head shimmer and hiss. It rattled menacingly as his smile broadened wide. His voice grew breathy with excitement. Tongue slipping from between his lips to taste the air so heavy with the flavor of Sasuke's sweat.

"Still, I will give you credit where credit is due. You should have crawled off the Rot begging for death and yet here I am, two days into pushing my magic into you through that hole in your neck and only now are you starting to succumb. That Uchiha blood I think, will taste very sweet indeed."

The pain shot through Sasuke again, as if acknowledgement of the poison in his neck was all the foul ache needed to start it's unbridled campaign towards killing him. Grunting against the sudden onslaught of agony Sasuke strained to keep his sword up, hair dancing as electricity shimmered up and down it's long shining blade.

"You are a fool if you think I will let you touch me without slaughtering you first." The valiant words came out hard, even as fear trickled slow into his heart at the sight of a black twisting pattern on his skin spreading. He didn't have to ask to know what the poison would do when it covered him completely. It was safe to guess it would hurt, and it would end him.

Panting Orochimaru tasted the air over and over as he laughed, a hysterical noise lacking in all calmness.

"I do hope you thrash a bit at least. Do try. I do so _love_ it when they thrash."

Without warning he threw himself at the Star, mouth wide in a smile insane with anticipation, seemingly unfazed by Sasuke's defiant raised blade.

* * *

The Chattels guarding the door at the very end of the hall was as good as a sign and Hinata did not take the time to let them speak, to argue or fight.

Projectile magic had never been her forte but with Sasuke's arrows it seemed to flow naturally into the wood, twining with the shaft of the bow, twisting within the fibres of the arrows. Drawing as she ran forward she didn't pause, didn't slow. They had only a moment to gasp, eyes widening in their similar bruised faces before Hinata's arrow flew.

Slamming home into the door behind them the magic erupted in an explosion of energy hot and furious and all three flew like the rag dolls they looked so much like. They slammed into the wall of the corridor in front of them, sliding into a heap on the ground, eyes closed and heads bleeding.

"Forgive me." Hinata whispered softly, ripping open the door and staring with flabbergasted eyes at the jungle that croaked and moaned from within.

Hands tightening around the bow in her hands she glanced just once at the Chattels on the floor and stepped inside, slamming the door closed behind her.

The darkness was thick enough to resemble a night clear of clouds with a shining shattered moon to make everything glow.

Tangled vines crawled over the trees and huge leafy plants swayed in the warm wet breeze. Roughly Hinata's gaze scanned the vegetation before her, finding the pattern of a well worn path among the trees.

If there was one thing she knew it was that her heart had never felt so heavy since leaving her sister bleeding on the crater of Sasuke's collision with the Veil. Her breath was choking her, partly due to the humidity but also the growing apprehension that she was going to arrive too late.

The image, replaying in her mind in painful clarity dragged itself across her thoughts. Sasuke splayed on the ground, silver coursing over the soil, wings askew and painfully broken. Chest still. Silent.

Terror of a kind she had not thought she could feel was making her veins dilate and adrenaline was pumping through her so quickly she felt dizzy. It was too much to comprehend, that feeling of fear, of her insides turning to ice and her body breaking out in a freezing sweat that made her limbs shudder. Shoving aside the picture in her head she threw herself into the jungle, her ears tuning into the crash and burn of an obvious battle in the distance.

There was no silence in the forest. Everything seemed to sigh and breathe. Birds called to each other in maniacal laughter and frogs croaked loud and ominous in the shadows. Eyes peered at her intently from the darkness, hissing and whispering.

Lightning and screams coming from a beastly throat echoed through the trees, bouncing off the molecules of water so densely packing the air in humidity making her doubt for a moment that she was heading in the right direction.

Standing still in the quiet, listening to the buzzing flies and the gentle hiss of something that sounded much like the hotsprings of home in the distance Hinata snapped her head sharply, hearing the sudden crack of trunks breaking following by the chirping angry roar of Sasuke's magic tearing to life in the distance once more.

Poised as she was to listen she jumped, her bow snapping to her ankle where something suddenly snatched at her foot and in her shock she loosed an arrow, it's crack as it hit home a sharp whip sound in the semi silence.

Stumbling back, she tripped, feeling more delicate touches on her calves that in the dim light she managed to make out were twisting vines like snakes moving forward eerily, unrelenting despite her arrow pinning one such plant to the ground where it had taken hold of her.

She watched with horror as the arrow was taken by the vines, twisted until the shaft snapped loud in the eerie quiet and it took her no time at all to imagine what her own bones would sound like should the vines get a good enough grip.

Grunting hard she launched herself to her feet and with her hand up her shield snapped to life around her. It hissed with the effort of sustaining her safety as she slammed through the foliage and found the path past the tightly knotted vegetation trying to take her life.

No longer trying to be subtle the vines thickened to less than tiny twisting tendrils into furious thick trunks that slammed into her shield and knocked her nearly to her knees as the magic strained against the onslaught.

More and more of them flowed from the sides of the path until her vision was all frantic twisting plants, flowers in brilliant red bloomed like mouths with many pollen covered teeth, and panicking Hinata cried out, throwing all her weight into one last push through the foliage.

She came out of the jungle with a grunt of pain as another vine snatched at her ankles. It cracked through her shield with force and with the air knocked out of her lungs, she slammed into the clearing ground hardly making a sound.

Kicking viciously she scrambled back from the jungle edge and watched in confusion as the vines retreated, only understanding what was happening when she heard the sudden monstrous cackle of a hissing laugh behind her.

Slowly she turned, looking over her shoulder with the same horrible feeling in her gut that she felt when a branch proved untrustworthy while climbing and the ground reached up to break her in a fall.

Mouth dry her all seeing eyes took in the image before her and within her mind nightmares from childhood exploded, dreams that had woken her screaming and sweating came to life before her very eyes like a bloodstain spreading on white robes.

The body of the thing had no end. It was as thick as an ancient tree trunk, the stench of it powerful as the muscles beneath the endless white and green scales that covered it. From wounds on it's bunching and twitching muscled length blood black as oil and just as fetid gushed in thick oozing spills.

It's head was simply a giant gaping mouth, it's eyes too big even for it's large monstrosity. All golden glow and a slit of black pupil narrowed with obvious excitement. It's maw stood open as it laughed, tongue long and split snapping out to taste the air before it as the thick leather frills of black ebony around it's head flared and rattled loudly.

"Surrender, Little Star! I am doing you a favor, do you not know? The hatred would eat you." And the snake launched. All of it's enormous body shifted and Hinata scrambled out of the way of it's monstrosity coiling and releasing as it pushed itself with the unrelenting force of a freight train.

It was then through the steaming clouds of the geysers that Hinata saw him. Crouched he was a hawk felled from the sky, black feathers glinting in the half light. His gaze was shrouded by a silver mess of blood coming down on one side of his face. Teeth gritted tightly Sasuke's hand flicked out at his side and as the snake came crashing for him his fingers spit and sparked with lightning before roaring to life in the shape of a long glittering sword.

The light made shadows flail and twirl on his face. In the flickering flash she could see, the black lace pattern of darkness that overtook half of his face not covered in the silver of his ichor.

He dodged the snapping maw of his opponent with a stumble that was alarming. His movements usually so elegant and effortless clearly costing much more than he could give as he twisted and shunted the creature away from him with his lightning imbued blade.

It hardly seemed to faze the Worm as it crashed into the outskirts of the clearing, levelling massive trees and flattening forest as it writhed itself back up.

"You proud Uchiha could not handle succumbing wholeheartedly to the darkness. Give in now. There is no one to save you, no one to put a stop to the hate inside you. It is a pity that no one who loves you is left. No one to turn the tide back on your own destruction."

The body of the snake twisted then hard and his brutal stinking tail came slamming around, decimating the clearing edge.

Sasuke had been still too long, his chest rising and falling in an attempt to catch his breath. The crack of the snake's body slamming into him sent him flying forward, catching himself hard on uneven ground and before he could gather his feet under him the loops of serpentine body were tightening around him, heedless of the cuts his wings inflicted, or the blast of magic bruising and wounding as he struggled in the tightening hold.

"Oh..." Orochimaru sighed deeply, his tongue slithering out between his one broken fang and the glinting off white of the venom drenched other. "Oh, I do _so_ like it when they thrash."

Sasuke stared forward, looking at the yellow glowing eyes, face twisted into a snarl reflected in the shining orbs.

"It is really too bad that you were unable to discover all the truths that the heavens hid from you before you came here. If you had known that your brother was after the real threat- that he was heading to Hell's Maw to enter the Third Realm to look for Danzo, would you have ended here?" He cocked his heavy snake head then. "I suppose we will always wonder, won't we? Or rather, _I_ will."

Squeezing now, Sasuke gasped, feeling the tightening of his ribs, the pulse of his heart in his veins stuttering. Faintly he grasped at the threads of magic, dark gaze flickering a crimson red that made the snake pause, yellow eyes widening.

"What?" Orochimaru gasped, stunned by the sudden flare of scarlet in his prey's gaze. "The Crimson Eye?"

Hinata felt her body move, felt herself throw her weight onto her knees- for it would take too long to push herself to her feet. She felt the arrow in her fingers and the fletching that sliced her skin as she nocked the arrow into place.

The pulse of her heart was a drum beat in her ears so loud she could hear nothing else, see nothing else but Sasuke's glowing red gaze, the snarl on his face an expression she never wanted to see again.

And although she felt it, the air in her lungs drawing in breath, her arm pulling the string back screaming at the force, inside she was quiet and small. She watched with tear filled eyes that were at once stunned by the feeling roaring to life inside her and yet basking in it.

That nightmare was going to take Sasuke from her.

Firmly, quietly the magic in her spiraled to life in a blazing heat of animosity so savage it sparked in flaming chaos over the arrow shaft. In her fingers it glowed bright as a star in the dim haze of steam and darkness, drawing both the Worm's gaze and Sasuke's in shock.

 _You can't have him._

Hair fanning in a wave of black silk around her face, Hawk Eyes glinting pearls in the light of her shining arrow she glared across the expanse of jungle ground past clouds of white into the Worm's stunned yellow eyes.

 _He's mine._

The arrow erupted from her bow with a whistle to shatter eardrums. Orochimaru had just enough time to widen his gaze before her arrow, sparkling a thousnad gold hues, sliced through his eye with force her bow should not have been capable of. The explosion of black blood erupted with the shriek of agony to shake the very mountain. In the sudden thrashing chaos of so much creature shaking Sasuke shoved forward, sword twirling elegant as a string of silk in water.

The flashing hungry lightning erupted as he slammed onto the Worm's head and with a blow that threw black blood in a tsunami wave to challenge the spitting light of his lightning the second eye burst- ruined completely.

Tossing his huge head the Worm sent Sasuke flying and Hinata gasped as he hit the ground hard before her, panting heavily and covered in his blood and the rotting stink of the Worm's own.

"Slave! Filth! Rotting walking corpse that you are! How dare you?!" Orochimaru shrieked, it's endless coils of scaled muscle thrashing and churning as it flailed blindly.

Hinata gasped, feeling Sasuke slam into her hard and stumble, his body a burning furnace against hers.

There was not enough air in the world to fill her lungs and desperately she gripped his face in her hands, heart aching at the dark pattern etched into his white blood stained skin. "Sasuke! You- you're burning!" Before she could say more Sasuke slammed a hand over her mouth, glaring over his shoulder at the blinded creature behind him.

The snake froze, tongue flicking out rhythmically as it listened. From it's eye the arrow Hinata had lodged pulsed like a heart beat in soft gold, lighting the gore of his face.

"Oh, I can smell you." He hissed, blind head turning this way and that as he listened. "I can hear you, dead thing that you are. Sweet smelling thing. Rotting thing. I will tear you apart, you will weep for days, you will beg for your mother, I will make you wish you were never born."

"Why are you here?" Sasuke panted, shoving her behind him as his wings rose to block her, black eyes fixed determinedly on the approaching bleeding monster before them. "You should have run."

Orochimaru's snake mouth grinned at the sound. "Oh... oh can it be? The slave so hated, so ill treated... Can it be I hear... _affection_?"

Hinata started at the snake's words, her hands fumbling with another arrow as it slid slowly forward.

"Oh Little Star, you should have known better than to bring a loved thing here. I will make you listen to her begging for death. Like a bloom I will take her apart, petal by petal until she knows her innards as well as her own face."

A growl so deep in his chest it reverated in Hinata's own left Sasuke's throat and his magic flared again. His gaze switching from black to flashing crimson red that shone from his face in a frightening glow.

In his hand lightning hissed and popped. Hinata stumbled back at the feel of it licking at her skin. Before she could cry out for him to stop he was gone, a flash of light and screaming thunder through the haze of steam. The snake shot forward with a flick of it's tongue, batting at him with it's huge body making Sasuke flip expertly out of the way, landing with a stumble that hinted at his weariness.

It was a sea of scales, an endless twisting tangle of muscled reptile and as Sasuke launched towards the snake it thrashed it's tail. Hinata threw herself out of the way, barely escaping being flattened by the monstrosity of it's body.

The snake was paying her no mind however, busy listening to the roaring hiss of Sasuke's lightning imbued hands. Hinata ducked again as another coil bunched together and with a carefully timed roll passed beneath it, barely avoiding being crushed.

With a gasp she shoved herself to her feet, fear making her spine tingle as her boots slid on smooth glass. She looked down at the Scaled Worm's treasure hoard so far below. It glinted strangely in the half light, and with her stomach tight at the thought of falling down she let out a breath, eyes widening.

Mind working hard she looked up, watching as Sasuke was thrown like a piece of debris from the snake's head and with a crash rolled to a stop on the forest ground, body trembling as he pushed himself up.

His face was half covered in darkness and Hinata's gaze only had to land on him for a moment to make up her mind.

"I'm over here." She couldn't shout and thankfully it was not necessary. In the pause Orochimaru stilled, head turned towards her.

"Are you, now?" He whispered, and his tongue flicked long and monstrous from his mouth. Sasuke grunted hard, face paling as he watched the monster turn from him and begin the slow slide towards Hinata standing in the center of the glass covered pit.

"I will make everything you have ever loved regret your name." His voice was calm as his enormous girth slid slowly forward, coil upon coil of muscle and scales and stench. Hinata shook furiously, her body a quivering leaf in a blasting wind and with trembling hands she lifted the bow up, watching with trepidation as the arrow shuddered in her grip.

Realizing what she was doing Sasuke breathed in sharply, straining to stand under the immense pressure of poison magic coursing through his body.

"Hinata!" His scream drowned as her arrow flew, slicing into the snake's cheek and with a savage roar of fury Orochimaru threw himself blindly forward.

At the last possible second Hinata gasped, flinging herself sideways to the edge of the pit just as the snake's weight shattered the glass beneath her feet. Her ribs shot through with agony as she slammed onto the side. Her hands fumbled on the vegetation to grab hold of something, anything while the endless fall of Orochimaru's shrieking body slid past her in thrashing panicked train.

"No!" His roar echoed from below as he fell through the air like a piece of string caught in a breeze. " ** _No_**!"

Vindictive, his tail flicked hard in her direction and Hinata had just a second to close her eyes as the slam of it exploded stars in her vision and with a cry she felt her hand slip.

Terror at the fall, at the endless suspension in the air that would come before being slammed to the ground where the demon worm below now thrashed and roared ate her insides. Closing her eyes tight she felt the shriek claw it's way up her throat at the same time that something grabbed hold of her hand.

With a sudden taut stop that knocked the air out of her lungs she slammed hard into the wall of the pit, blinking up at Sasuke straining to hold her from the screaming thunder of the snake below thrashing in it's gold and jewels.

"You idiot." Sasuke grunted through gritted teeth, pulling hard, wings flat to the ground behind him to steady himself from slipping over the edge. Hinata paid him no mind, hyperventilating as he slowly dragged her up and breathless they collapsed in a heap on the floor. With her cheek at his neck she sobbed, feeling the burn of his skin urging her to push up to her knees.

"Sasuke! Sasuke, what _is_ this?" The tears were pouring down her face, wasted. Wings splayed at painful angles; he was a smear of black tar on the tangled shrubbery of the jungle clearing.

From below the sounds of the Worm seemed distant. It was no longer the end of a whip but a tired dying worm in too hot a sun. Still it thrashed weakly, blood smearing his golden hoard in it's putrid darkness. "Daughter of slime, Rot bred filth!" His cries were echoes up from the pit and Hinata glanced at it, the terror just barely contained beneath her skin.

Sasuke's heart beat at irregular stuttering rhythms and the black crawled, a continuous spreading poison in a beautiful pattern of curling swirling twists that might as well have been ropes to strangle, or knives to slice.

The black was consuming most of his face, and breath coming in short spurts he gazed up at her, brow furrowed, the new flash of his red gaze making his stare more piercing.

"Why did you come here?" It was a whisper. Hardly audible as she pulled him into her arms, tears dripping off her chin. "Sasuke! What do I do? Tell me what to do!" Sobs strangled her voice as his eyes closed and his body went limp.

" _No_." Breathless Hinata pressed her ear to his chest, listening for that continuous stuttering throb, hearing it flutter and struggle, a bird too tired to fight, too tangled in nets to fly.

Panic was threatening to tsunami over her completely when a familiar growl had her turning her head to the shadows of the jungle and with a start she let out a cry of recognition as Amaterasu's solid form ripped through the tangling foliage, teeth snapping vines apart and glowing gold eyes furious.

At his heels Anko and Kabuto appeared, faces pale and twisted in terror that fluttered to a stop at the sight of Hinata with Sasuke in her arms.

"Anko!" Her voice was a thousand beautiful windows breaking, her tears rivers. "Anko, please! Help me!"

Kabuto stared at the scene, not daring to get closer with his ears warning him that at the lip of the pit the thing of his nightmares frothed, hissing and cursing and bleeding his hatred.

"The Worm... it has fallen?" he whispered.

Together the girls gathered Sasuke and with some shaking effort and the tearing of Anko's stitches managed to get him largely on Amaterasu's back.

"The beast tore out of it's shed and came barreling in here when we heard the Worm roar." Anko grunted, her lips so pale and eyes so wide she was hardly recognizable. "We just followed it. Kabuto! Come!"

Snapping out of his stunned reverie the blonde turned and helping steady Sasuke on the horkney's back stared at the pattern on his pale skin, wincing visibly.

"Please." Hinata wiped at her face roughly with her sleeve as they led her through the clouds of spitting geysers towards a rock wall hidden by the trees. "Please, Kabuto. Help me. _Please_."

Eyes wide in his face Kabuto stared at her and finding a door amongst the foliage he grunted, throwing his shoulder into it hard and flinging it open with a crash.

"The poison... he gave it to the Rot people and if they got it in him there is not much that will stop it." He frowned as they hurried down the dark cave, Amaterasu groaning under the immense weight of Sasuke's wings dragging behind him.

"There must be something." Anko snapped. "With all the blasted things that creature hoards. Kabuto you must know of _something_."

"I..." he paused, looking at them both, face in a decided grimace. "Perhaps. Anko, you know where to go. I'll meet you there."

* * *

Somehow, through passages Hinata had never seen they ended at Kabuto's Dispensary and like before Anko stumbled in, holding a bleeding torso in one hand and face pale. Gasping painfully she shoved hard, pushing Kabuto's work table aside so that Hinata could lower Sasuke from Amaterasu's back to the stone floor.

Tears were streaming from her face and desperately she tore them from her cheeks, pressing them into his mouth with shaking hands.

Panting and pressing hard on the opened stitches of her torso Anko watched.

"Tears." she whispered. "Of course he kept you close... But Hinata." Anko winced, hands on her knees as she caught her breath by the door. "I..if the Worm poisoned him with his own fang, I do not know that there is anything which will..."

"I can slow it down." Hinata interrupted, watching the pouring black markings slow their travel over Sasuke's pale skin. "I can give Kabuto time to come back."

Confusedly Anko watched, her mouth opening in surprise as she absorbed the desperation in Hinata's shaking hands. The minutes passed and Hinata's trembling body, her fingers ripping the tears from her lashes and pressing them to the star's mouth never slowed, never calmed. Gently she pushed his hair back from his forehead, her breath never ceasing its desperate rhythm.

"Sasuke, please. Please, please." Her chant was continuous, frantic.

Like the sun's waning light bleeding into the evening black of night through the window the realization entered Anko's head slowly, delicately.

"You..." she whispered, eyes wide . Unconcerned by her words Hinata remained focused on Sasuke, on slowing the markings relentless war on his skin. "Are you...in love with-?"

"I'm back." Kabuto's voice called sharply and Anko spun to see him enter, gripping a tiny glass vial in his hand, it's shimmering liquid like star light captured beneath it's wax covered stopper.

Hinata and Anko both froze at the sight of the bottle.

"I am a healer, and an inventor of cures." Kabuto muttered firmly, eyeing the travelling scrawl of black flames on Sasuke's skin. Turning his eyes back to Hinata he rubbed his face to smear away the sweat beading on his forehead.

"This is it. This is the only thing I know that will slow down poison from a Profane. The tears of an innocent star, shed in joy, untainted."

He held up the bottle. Behind Hinata the light of the suns blasted through the wooden mesh carved in swirls strangely like the pattern that crawled over Sasuke's skin, glinting on the contents within the vial.

"He's the Vindicator." His grip on the bottle tightened so that Hinata worried it would crack beneath his furious clenching fingers. "He's supposed to destroy our world, end our lives and those of all those who live here." Kabuto's gaze was the same feral fire that had sparked at their earlier confrontation and Hinata slid from her knees to a crouch, her hands tight fists at her sides. Behind her Amaterasu gave a low threatening growl.

"Give me the bottle, Kabuto."

"Kabuto." Anko whispered warningly, seeing something in Hinata's stance to merit her wary tone.

"Tell me why he should live." Kabuto shook his head again, ignoring his comrade behind him. "Tell me."

"If he is the Vindicator," Hinata did not hesitate, did not think, did not stop to breathe. "Then the death of the Veil rests on him alone. If that was true the realm would not be in it's last breaths. Look out there." She pointed towards the window . "The Rot spreads. If there's anyone that knows how to heal this..." she swallowed, hoping against hope that she was right. "...it will be the one ordained to destroy it."

Kabuto glared, blinking rapidly behind his smudged spectacles.

"A creator of the poison also knows the antidote." Kabuto whispered softly, staring at the bottle in his hand. It was one of the first things Orochimaru had beaten into his head.

Anko sighed. "What if he refuses? What if he wants to destroy it?"

Hinata extended her hand firmly towards Kabuto. "He won't." Her voice shook, not with a lack of conviction but a knot of panic as her eyes flickered to the scrawl of black on Sasuke's face. "Please." Chin trembling, lashes wet with dew she breathed out softly. "Please give it to me. Don't make me fight you again."

The seconds stretched endlessly before them, Kabuto's eyes fixated on Hinata's tear filled gaze, his distrust growing with every breath.

Finally losing all patience Hinata launched forward. "Rasu!"

He did not need to be told twice. The horkney threw himself hard towards Kabuto, teeth bared and the blonde gasped, feeling Hinata's fingers snatch the bottle as he and Anko flung themselves from the Dispensary and Rasu's snarling teeth.

Without giving them a chance to do more than cry out from the other end of the hall Hinata slammed the door, throwing the bolt into place.

"Hinata!" Kabuto's cry was muted from the other side of the door as he banged on the wood. "Hinata, wait! It could slay you! It takes as much as gives- wait!"

It mattered not, in her hands Hinata studied the vial for a moment, breathing in the the scent of petrichor that rose from the tiny glass container as she cracked the seal before pressing it to Sasuke's lips and tossing the empty thing aside.

"Please, don't." She hardly breathed, focused completely on the feel of the heart within his chest still pulsing. "Please don't do this."

For a moment there was nothing, just her heart rushing in her ears and her tears dripping onto his face.

And then there was a pull. Slow at first, right at the base of her neck, at the pit of her stomach, at the place where her heart beat. A tug, and then a tearing of heat and life and breath as magic, as life itself was pulled from her body into his.

Hinata gasped, squinting as the black of the poison seemed to shimmer with her tears. The feeling was not so much unpleasant but overwhelming, a tension that she had not felt before rising over every limb, making her knees weak and her chest ache.

It was only when she closed her eyes against it that the pull turned from a tug to a tidal wave, sweeping her away- dragging her relentlessly into the depths of him.

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	14. Please

**_I am very nervous about this chapter._**

 ** _Aw well, have at her._**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

Kabuto's fists slammed into the wood of his own Dispensary door with growing force, glowing by a light that emitted from his skin as the magic in him took hold of his desires and strengthened his hands to accomplish what he wanted.

Leaning heavily against the wall behind him Anko panted for breath, her brow beading with sweat and her hands covered in blood from stitches still far too fresh to be so recently ripped.

"Hinata!" Kabuto punched at the wood again, watching the entire heavy wooden frame jump on it's hinges but remain steadfast in place.

Feeling the effects of the blood loss and pain Anko finally gathered breath into her lungs and slid down the dark wall slowly, ignoring the scrape of the rock against her back. "K-Kabuto... Kabuto, I..."

Her breathless painful gasp was hardly a familiar sound from Anko's usually vibrant voice and Kabuto whirled to look at her immediately, eyes wide and horrified. "Anko! Curses, your stitches. Here." And sniffling he wiped at his face with his sleeve before pulling out a pouch brimming with a powder that glittered and glistened.

Anko blinked through the haze as he ripped yet another of her robes and with careful fingers administered the powder over the bloody gash now straining to hold together with torn string.

"Is that what I think it is?" Anko grunted, watching as the glittery white powder formed a pink paste with her blood.

Kabuto's mouth was pressed thin and sour, his fingers steady despite his obvious turmoil. "I figure he will kill me regardless if he sees the angel tears gone from the Gallery. I may as well take something else for you to put me back together if he happens to leave enough pieces for the mending."

Anko's irritated grunt was half pain half displeasure as the powder began to sizzle at her wound, fizzing and popping with heat that coursed through her body in waves like being licked by a fire.

"He is imprisoned in that pit. He's not coming out."

Kabuto did not disagree, watching instead to make sure that the powder did it's job before sealing the pouch with it's silk draw string and stuffing it back into his robes.

"Ah." She hissed, wincing at him as he watched her flesh bubbling. "It burns, Kabuto. It boils."

"A moment more. Just breathe, Anko."

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than the door behind them rattled and within Rasu's growling threat turned to whining as an invisible flash of power came from beneath the door to slam into both their chests, sending Kabuto nearly to the wall with the force of the magic.

"What?" Anko's gasp was followed by her gripping painful fingers at his shoulder like claws, eyes wide and staring at the Dispensary."What was that?"

"We have to get in there." Kabuto glared at the door for a moment longer before reaching for the magic in the air, for the pulse of the mountain who ebbed with an energy enormous and sleepy as a giant mid nap.

"Stop." Sliding a hand into her robes Anko moved towards the door's hinges with a knife in hand. "Males, always breaking things when wit is all that is required. Help me." And with a jiggle of her knife at the hinges the door was suddenly slamming to the ground at an awkward angle that allowed them to heave it out of the way.

The sight that they beheld left Anko frozen by the doorway, watching as Kabuto rushed forward with her hands over her mouth in horror.

The Star remained where he was, only the slight rise and fall of his chest a sign that he was alive despite the scrawling black of the Profane's poison bleeding through his skin.

Sprawled across him, still and white as a bone was Hinata.

"Oh Veil.." Anko swallowed hard. "Is she... is she dead?"

Kabuto was worrying at his lip with his teeth as though it were offensive, and with trembling hands moved Hinata to lay beside Sasuke on her back.

A hiss of breath escaped him at the sight of the Profane's scrawl on her face and neck, sliding in curling flame patterns down her arms. "Damned! She gave him the tears."

"Is it passing the poison to her?" Anko closed her eyes. "Is that what it does?"

Kabuto shook his head, feeling the pulse on Hinata's neck carefully before sighing and eyeing the subdued Rasu staring at his prone family on the stone floor, eyes careful on Kabuto and Anko but teeth hardly bared.

"It requires an exchange. The healer gives the tears, provides the energy for the healing and the one healed gives something of equal value back." Closing his eyes Kabuto pressed his hand to his forehead, barring Anko and Rasu's watching eyes from his sight.

"What...what does a dying fallen star have to give?" Anko turned to look at Sasuke then, at the pulse of the poison moving forward and backwards on his skin like a battle at stalemate with armies winning and losing breath by breath.

On Hinata's skin the dance was the same, the black curling forward and back while her skin paled and paled beneath it.

"Nothing." Kabuto snapped, not bothering to look up. "He has nothing, she will die. I killed her."

Anko's shocked gasp and the start of a refusal began in her throat dying there as Kabuto raised his hand to stop her, focused instead on keeping track of Hinata's heart beats, praying that somehow she would wake up.

.

.

.

.

The wave of magic overwhelmed her like lightning to her spine, electrifying every molecule that made up her body. Through the swirls of power and energy she choked, aching for air and finding that perhaps she had no lungs to breathe with.

There was chaos, there was the burning of poison and then with the abruptness of waking from a nightmare she felt herself slam onto a rocky shore.

Coughing wetly Hinata dragged in a gasp of air and regretted the action instantly. There was water and debris in her mouth, swirling bits of invaders in her lungs and with every breath of air they rattled through her chest cavity.

Looking down at the sand and stones beneath her hands she froze, staring. The pebbles were white as bones and for a horrible moment she had thought they were a beach covered in an endless collection of discarded teeth.

Crying out frantically she froze, listening to the sifting rustle of the rocks knocking against each other, clearly stone, glowing faintly in a way she had never seen before.

Behind her the ocean that had spat her onto the shore was a vastness not of blue or gray or anything she had heard the ocean to look like but tinged a multitude of sharp agonizing colors against the black of a sky lacking suns and stars. Instead planets moved in the heavens in slow sleeping paths only disturbed by the occasional hyper comet shooting through the black.

Finally catching her breath Hinata studied the rocky edges of a hill beyond the white pebbled beach and the endless swirls of indigo and dark green, honey yellow and shocking pink that drifted and mixed in sparkles through the water. There was nothing beyond the liquid, just the black of the sky against the horizon, impenetrable and endless.

"Where am I?" She froze, stunned by her own voice only to look down at her small hands, her delicate fingers, feeling her face with the childish extremities and realizing with a growing lack of concern that she was in fact a child.

Something soft and delicate pricked at the back of her mind. A voice she recognized but also wondered about vaguely. It was familiar like her mother's voice was, but also not her mother. Younger and more permanent in her mind than the half recollected images and sounds of her deceased first love.

 _This is not a dream._

 _This is not reality. Yet is real._

 _This is soul._

Her legs moved without the worry of making a choice, her hair dripping the colors of the ocean behind her splattered on the beady sand below and as she reached the first rocky outcrop she paused.

Stretching out in an endlessness that should have been frightening but was not, there was a field. It's strangeness was not so much in it's vastness however but in the thing it seemed to contain. A smooth surface like glass covered in a film of water stood still and silent but for the shifting clouds of white against the blue sky held within it.

For a moment she was dizzy. Below her was the blue sky of the Veil, above her the black endlessness of space.

And floating between the two masses: feathers. They were black as night suspended in endless fall, doing slow elegant pirouettes that never ceased.

From her vantage point a little higher than the endless plateau before her she could see the dark ink spots of the feathers clearly against the skysoil. They were steadily more numerous, condensing to a solid ball of black plumage. It was then that the silence of the place finally settled on her shoulders and she realized that even the ocean that had spat her out had made no noise.

She noticed it because the quiet was broken by a sob.

It was not a tear in the world or a crash of falling tears shattering but rather soft, like the underside of an owls wing against a cheek as the weeping whispered it's mourning.

Inside her chest her heart shuddered like her eardrums, drinking in the sound. Her lips moved, silent and mute as she said the word.

 _Sasuke._

The time for decisions was nigh.

The spinning feathers glinted in the strange light of the planets above, blue and green and ivory white reflections of the colorful spheres against the darkness of space. Their razor sharp edges winked wickedly and as she stared past their field to the mass of black at it's center she knew one thing and one thing only with absolute certainty.

The way to Sasuke was through the feathers, to the center of the sky.

She learned her second fact as she stared at the closest shifting plume before her twirling innocently in an invisible wind.

The feathers would take her blood.

In the moment before diving into the fray she breathed in, studying the curve of the first feather before her, dissecting it for weakness like an opponent. As her hand raised to touch it's delicate curve she paused.

Images floated through the stiff fibres of it's tip, muted faces reflected in it's ebony darkness. A woman's smiling mouth and her black loving eyes, her fingers reaching towards the viewer familiar and affectionate.

The same voice that had whispered before, soothing her fears and anxieties whispered again, almost as aghast as Hinata herself was.

 _Memories._

And in that moment Hinata standing before the feather realized it was her own voice she was hearing.

Like choosing to step through the feathers was a choice bravely made so then was touching it. Gritting her jaw and setting her tiny shoulders Hinata breathed in deeply and pressed her fingers to the curving plume.

It started with his face innocent and young, just like her.

 _Running through the grasslands with the expanse of sky black and lit from below his feet by the lunar light was one of the things that brought him the most joy._

 _He could hear the swishing hiss of the silver grass at his legs. It parted as he passed through up the hill behind his house overlooking the vast fields that stretched on the outskirts of Umbra City towards the Soul Tree Woods glinting their glass green canopy._

 _Behind him Itachi ran, yelling incoherent things. Battle cries, proclamations of victory, accusations of treachery, all tinged with the gasping laughter that was causing a stitch on his side._

 _Sasuke laughed too, black gaze as dark as the sky behind him, wings white as the trees of the forest. Perfect and innocent and pure. He flared their downy mess and wished again that he could fly, that perhaps he would learn too as early as his brother had, so much earlier than anyone else._

 _He glanced back over his shoulder to see his brother gaining on him, longer legs eating up the space between them and in a panic he flapped the fluffy white puffs on his back, setting the grass to shivering in the wind._

 _"Sasuke! Don't!" Itachi's shout was hardly a reprimand, his amusement softening the snap. "Don't! You're not ready yet- Argh!" And his cry of defeat echoed as Sasuke shunted off the ground, his wings beating furiously for the two feet of height beneath his feet. The frantic slap of air against the grass making lunar dust rise in swirling clouds that made Itachi wince as he came up beneath him._

 _"No!" His brother's voice still had a laugh at the edges but his grip on Sasuke's waist was firm as he pulled him down. "No, Sasuke." And with a last tug the younger Uchiha landed in a crumpled heap in his brother's arms, his pout accompanied by an angry pair of glinting tears on his lashes. "But- Brother! I almost had it that time!"_

 _"You almost had a broken bone is what you had." Itachi scolded with no bite, throwing him up on his shoulders with ease. Sasuke had always been smaller than Itachi, who seemed taller and more broad shouldered than his younger counterpart, even considering their age gap._

 _Wings twitching with annoyance Sasuke slumped over his brother's head, chin digging painfully into Itachi's dark head of hair so he groaned loudly as they stumbled back down the hill, fingers reaching up to tickle his brother's side to dislodge him._

 _"How will I ever catch up to you if I don't start trying to fly early." Sasuke's tone might have been punctuated with laughter at the tickling but his words held meaning and Itachi stopped, looking up at his brother above him while Sasuke looked down, small mouth in a deep frown._

 _"You are Sasuke." Itachi frowned, looking intently into eyes so incredibly familiar they might as well have been his own. "You are Sasuke and what you do will be because of who you are, not because you caught up to me. You will have your own stregnths. Your own battles."_

 _Sasuke's face twisted with displeasure, his lips keeping any words of disagreement firmly behind their pout._

 _"It is not all it seems to be, little brother." Itachi sighed then, feeling Sasuke's forehead press to his. Soft, warm and soothing he breathed in the scent of youth on his brother's hair, still more baby than even child. "Being a weapon means someone is always trying to wield you. Don't envy me so much."_

 _If only Sasuke had understood._

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 _._

 _It was rare being in the Council Chamber as a child. Here the very fate of the three Realms had been decided more than once. On the walls the lunar stone had been carved to represent each story, holding all the warnings, all the heroes, all the death that came with war._

 _Members of each of the powerful Clans of the Angels stood to attention in vastness of the chamber. Above them the domed ceilings were painted in the dark blues and soft silvers, gentle grays and off whites of their realm, depicting the expanse of purity, of sameness that made up the Heavens. Sasuke stared up at it, finding it both beautiful in it's simplicity. Yet at the same time painfully dull._

 _Beside him his mother stood stiffly, her dark hair and black eyes so much like those of her two sons and husband were a rarity among the pale haired, blue eyed angel breed. Only those of the Uchiha clan seemed to ever be gifted with such darkness. At times it was a thing people envied, for in a world of plain pastels and soft whites the darkness was stark, beautiful like the ebony sky dotted with planets and comets._

 _Other times it was whispered about, in hushed tones. Darkness called to darkness, sin to sin. Were they blessed or were they cursed?_

 _Before the stone dais stood a dozen men, their wing spans were a thing of alarm, even tucked behind their backs their feathers were sometimes longer than Sasuke was tall and he stared at the dotted gray and white plummage with awe and envy. Some faces were lined with age, others lined with bitterness. On occasion a scar left the face marred with pain that never faded despite the Veil tears that healed them._

 _"The Council is in session." One man called, and his was one of the faces marred with both wrinkles and scars. One eye had been lost and instead of wearing the scar with pride as all angels were meant to do the elder had hidden it beneath bandages stark white against his tanned skin. Sasuke stared at this man, at his strangely quiet voice, at his lips so straight a line he could not tell if he was smiling or frowning. He was a blank slate, confusing and unnerving._

 _Or perhaps Sasuke felt the disarming feeling due to the wings that were tucked neatly behind him. Wings that unlike the rest mostly white tinged occasionally in silver or gray had large patches in ebony black that looked less like feathers and more like steel._

 _"Fugaku." Another Council member murmured and his voice was reassuring in its nature. Elder Sarutobi gazed at the Uchiha family with kind eyes unaffected by his aging face. "You come to discuss the recruitment of your eldest son into Knighthood. What have you to say on this matter?"_

 _Itachi stood perfectly still beside his father, unaffected by being the topic of discussion. Peering from his periphery Sasuke watched as his father, broad shouldered, square jawed and strong looked at the imposing crowd of elders before him._

 _"The decision must be made outside of my household." his voice conveyed the distaste of the words, and his lip curled in a way that made Sasuke think the phrase had left a bitter flavor on his tongue. "My wife and I have come to an impasse."_

 _A few elders shifted, and as Sasuke studied the many varied faces he noted with some interest that the women in the crowd were starting to be pushed forward._

 _One such elder gazed at Mikoto sternly, her pale hair pulled into a knot at the back of her head that matched the paleness of her feathers._

 _"Mikoto. Please, explain your position to the council."_

 _Eyes down Mikoto drew in a long breath. "My children have been ...blessed with abilities beyond their years. So far Itachi, my oldest has been marked as a special gift to the Knight forces for his prodigious development by his Masters." She swallowed. This was all things the Council knew, and so they nodded._

 _"I do not want him entering service until he has reached an age of average maturity. My husband wishes he be sworn into service now."_

 _Sasuke watched as eyes shifted on the council, glances were exchanged, jaws tightened and Sarutobi's gaze softened as he gazed at the Uchihas. His sigh was heavy._

 _"Elders." He murmured softly, glancing to his peers. "If you could please give myself and the Uchiha family a chance to discuss this in private."_

 _So strong was the influence of the elder that the others left without another word. Mikoto watched this with dark eyes stricken. Itachi remained perfectly still and Sasuke's dark eyes flickered from him to Elder Danzo who remained where he was, gazing at Itachi with interest._

 _"Danzo." Sarutobi murmured then, robes shifting gently as he extended his hand down the dais towards the door to the right where the rest of the elders were leaving. "If you would be so kind."_

 _It was an order veiled thinly in gentleness and Danzo's mouth did not change it's straight unwavering line as he bowed his head and exited the room._

 _In the silence left by the crowd the council chamber echoed with emptiness. Here the ceremonies of knights ordained to serve the Realms were held, filling the chamber and out the door, down the steps with angels come to view the new generation of guardians. Here punishments were handed out. Here Council was held to determine the movement of angels from Heaven to Veil and Veil to Hell._

 _Here whispers were hissed and plots were hatched in the shadows of the arches._

 _"Mikoto." Elder Sarutobi's face stayed poised towards the door where the rest of the council had disappeared, turning only towards her when the door was firmly shut and he was sure of privacy. "Mikoto, I understand your hesitation."_

 _"Then this should be an simple impasse to resolve." Mikoto's soft voice, her quiet and gentle spirit shone brightly through her dark eyes still focused on the marble ground before her. Sasuke stared at her, at the mother he had always known to be full of smiles and laughter and quiet deference for his father. Had he ever heard that unrelenting tone in her voice, that waspish sting to her sentences?_

 _"I am afraid nothing is ever as simple as it should be." Sarutobi eyed Fugaku who sighed and it occurred to Sasuke for the first time ever that his father appeared wary, even tired. He was a mountain unmoved by storms and winds, by gossip or political ploys. Yet here he was, his face lined with exhaustion, his dark eyes closed against the battle before him._

 _For the first time in his life Sasuke stared at his parents with rising panic._

 _Who were these people?_

 _A hand, bigger than his but still young suddenly had his in it's grip and he glanced furtively at Itachi. His brother looked straight on, as still and silent as the lunar rock beneath their feet. His fingers tightened to a vice of comfort._

 _"War is coming." Sarutobi's whisper was delicate. "There is a storm brewing. We will need all the weapons we can muster. We will need all the loyalty of our people. I understand your worries, I understand your heart break." He swallowed. "But we are what we are. Your son is, for all intents and purposes a Knight of the Realms. We... " he paused, placing a hand on Mikoto's stiff shoulder, her face hidden by her dark hair. "..._ I _have need of him, Mikoto."_

 _Itachi's grip tightened and tightened until Sasuke's fingers ached and he winced against the pinch. He said nothing, only stared at the floor, as always following his brother's example, although he no longer knew who was comforting who in the end._

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 _The sheets were as soft as his brother's wings. They were worn because of how often he requested his mother wash them and she always complied. With her soft smile, her fingers lingering on his cheeks she would happily take the fabric._

 _Together they would hang them in the yard, where they would catch the scent of the moon flowers that bloomed every rotation of the planets, opening and closing their soft lavender petals like arms aching to hug._

 _When spread smooth over his bed the fabric breathed with scents of home. The soap his mother made in the kitchen and infused with herbs and sugars, and the smell of the outdoors._

 _On nights when he could not sleep Itachi would crawl into his bed with him if he was home and not out on missions. Yawning and hair rumpled, eyes half mast he would soothe Sasuke down before burying them both beneath the sweet smelling covers. Smoothing his pale fingers in slow circles over Sasuke's shoulders he would yawn and yawn, more asleep than the one he was trying to get to finally find rest._

 _Sasuke remembered those moments with the most clarity. Staring with dark eyes through the dim light of the stars that never set and the moon soil always aglow with the shifting light of the two suns. He could remember clearly as his brother's lashes touched dark against his pale cheek._

 _The safety of these moments, the inexplicable calm that washed over him had been so deep that he could never remember when he fell asleep. All he could recall clearly was the shape of his brother's chin, the smooth curve of his dark brow on his forehead and sometimes the twitch of his lips as he realized he was being stared at._

 _"Go to sleep, Sasuke. I'll be here in the morning, I promise."_

 _"Sometimes you are not." Sasuke's tone held the unmistakeable remnants of a pout despite his best intentions not to let it win._

 _"I don't break my promises, I don't tell you I will be here unless I fully intend to be."_

 _"Hm." The reply was less than convinced and Itachi opened one dark eye, so similar and so different from the innocent gaze fixated on him._

 _"I will never lie to you, Sasuke." Slowly his brother's fingers drifted from Sasuke's back to his hair, pushing back the ebony locks, staring directly into the guarded expression on the youngster's face. "Lying is a hurtful thing. I never want to hurt you."_

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 _._

 _Perhaps his brother did not lie, but he did omit things._

 _Dark eyes silent and growing more and more brooding Sasuke had watched as he packed his bags for a trip. Their realm was wide and empty, filled with spaces of heavenly Soul Tree forest that needed constant maintaining._

 _Or so he said._

 _"When is Shisui coming back?" Sasuke's voice was surprisingly light considering he was irritated and prying._

 _Itachi in his cleverness did not look at him, focused instead on gathering items for his trip. His battle armor for one seemed to be on the list of items._

 _"When it's time for him to come back, I assume." His brother replied vaguely, studying a compass with care before stuffing it into his satchel._

 _Sasuke bit the pink flesh of his bottom lip and flopped onto his bed. With the shutters open and the glare of the moon reflecting the sun it might as well have been midday, even though it was late. Later than Sasuke had seen Itachi leave for a mission before._

 _Words hung on his lips, words that made no sense. Words like "Be careful." Words like "I'm scared." Words like "Please come back."_

 _Before he could figure out what those words were even doing in his mouth, Itachi had slung the bag over his shoulder and with quick steps crossed the divide between their beds. Pressing his lips to Sasuke's head gently he paused._

 _"Be strong, little brother." And stepping back he pressed his fingers to Sasuke's forehead where his lips had just kissed, as though pushing the affection into his mind._

 _Scowling now Sasuke crossed his arms, and watched him leave without a word annoyed that as always his brother had called him little._

 _It was only after he disappeared that he realized any of the words would have been fine to say. It was the silence he had resorted to that felt like a sin._

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 _._

 _Something had happened._

 _He had been so very quiet for so long, had smiled without mirth, had laughed so that the hollow part of his chest echoed the sound and his soul refused to be in it. Sasuke let his fingers trail through Itachi's hair, watching as the dark eyes of his brother faded away to stare at a distant place within himself beneath the covers of his bed. His mother had not been able to wash the sheets and so they no longer held the wild free air within their fibres. Instead she had spent time in their yard, her fingers full of throwing knives, her stance stiff and unfamiliar and lethal as she practiced again and again._

 _Sasuke had never known his mother was a deadly thing. His father made it a point not to discuss it, had looked Sasuke in the eye and without a word made it law. When asked where his mother was, or what she was doing Sasuke would simply stare at the face of whoever asked, placid and calm._

 _"She's in the yard." No one ever seemed to require more than this from him._

 _As a result his sheets no longer smelled like the loveliness of homemade soap, wild solar winds and the blooms of the moon fields._

 _Something else... Sasuke tried to identify the soft hardly noticeable scent._

 _Salt. He decided it was salt. It smelled like the Well of Tears in the city, filled with the supplications of the people of the Veil._

 _He stared._

 _Itachi looked back at him, gaze glowing red. A color that Sasuke had hardly had a chance to see before. The crimson produced it's own light, it flared and turned the whole cave, the warmth of his bedtime nook into a nightmare shine. The shock froze Sasuke's tiny body, widened his gaze and it took a moment for Itachi to register the stunned horror on his little brother's face._

 _"...No..." He sat up, throwing the blankets off himself and burying his face into his hands, away from the wide eyed shock of the child still frozen in the covers. Sasuke's wings fluttered, their downy whiteness sliding around him, cocooning as his brother blinked hard, again and again, the tears he had been shedding without realizing filling the air with the scent of salt Sasuke had just been thinking about._

 _'I... I am sorry." Itachi whispered, rubbing at the tear streaks that lingered on his cheeks, down his chin as the red of his gaze flickered and died to it's normal black. Now however Sasuke saw them as something else, coal before being lit to fire, not the expanse of sparkling black sky covered with stars._

 _"Brother..." His voice shook, there was no hiding it and despite the shame it brought and the wounded look on Itachi's face at the wobble he looked steadily on._

 _"Where is Shisui?"_

 _It had been weeks since his departure to the Veil, weeks since his expected return. Time moved so strangely from realm to realm and so at first there had been no worries, and then a lot of speculation and finally Itachi's sudden secret departure in the evening and his silent morose return._

 _This blackness that seemed to hang over everything and everyone. And these red eyes so unlike anything Sasuke had ever witnessed seemed linked somehow._

 _It was easier to ask this question, still so painful, than to ask what was happening to his brother... to question why his feathers sometimes looked silver, or gray in the light of the moon and sun._

 _Itachi looked steadily at the little one, at the small bones of his hands, the tiny stretch of his pinky and the tiny nail that crowned it. Sasuke was so small, so innocent._ _Out there, in the shadows, in the council chambers, in the Veil, a war raged. A cloak and dagger enemy willing to kill stars, any star that got in his way._

 _Like Shisui had._

 _Steely determination made Itachi's jaw tighten, his swallow thick and his brow furrow. There was no point hiding this from Sasuke, the enemy would hesitate at nothing to destroy him and the ignorance would hardly serve him._

 _"Shisui was slayed, Sasuke."_

 _It all made sense then. The red gaze, the graying feathers, the quietness, the shadows._

 _Darkness. Sin. Hatred._

 _Sasuke trembled, biting his lip to keep it from betraying his fear. The red gaze, the touch of hate, of pain, of sorrow upon an angel's heart was culminating in his brother._

 _He whispered it, because to say it loud made him fear it would call it upon the house, like some nightmarish monster beneath his bed, better not named or acknowledged._

 _"Please... don't die, Itachi."_

 _His brother's gaze filled with tears again, smoothing his fingers over Sasuke's cheek with gentle eyes that flickered back and forth from kind to something that Sasuke could no longer name. Was it sorrow? Was it hatred? Did he ache?_

 _Itachi did not promise he would not. He had after all said he would never lie._

 _If only Sasuke had known that there were worse things a brother could do than die._

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 _Mother's voice was shaking, whether from anger or tears Sasuke could not make out but it was making his heart beat in his chest with the same battering ram pain as being punched at the academy. Eavesdropping was something he had been expressly told never to do and it shamed him in a way that twisted his insides into knots but he couldn't stop. He was frozen._

 _"I don't know what he is doing. I don't know where he goes. I... I have a bad feeling about this, Fugaku."_

 _"Itachi is a full fledged knight, Mikoto. He is doing his duty, and as an adult-"_

 _"An adult?" Her choked snap was so unlike anything Sasuke had ever heard come from his mother's mouth. He closed his eyes in the hope that it would help block out the dark hall in his home. The silvery light of the moon, the shadows long and blue and gray against the white of the walls all vanished and he was left with only the voices of his parents, furtive and hushed._

 _"He is an adult whether you wish him to be or not, Mikoto. You heard Elder Sarutobi and with his qualifications... with his...his gifts-"_

 _The sob made Sasuke brace against the wall, made him hold on to the coolness of the lunar rock, shivering so that his feathers whispered and he had to still his breathing to keep himself from giving away his position as he listened._

 _One moment his family and home was a place of joy and happiness. His brother's face full of openness and cheer and then, like a sudden shutting of a windowpane there was a shadow over his face that marred even his smiles._

 _Gifts, his father called it. Sasuke clenched his jaw tight against the noun._

 _Gifts did not make his brother weep at night under the covers of his bed, did not make him muffle the cries that rippled out of his throat, did not make him curl tight around his pillow in an attempt to muffle the noise so that Sasuke would not hear._

 _"Opening the Crimson Eye does not make him_ gifted _." Mikoto's voice struggled through her weeping. "It makes him cursed." And her words dissolved then, half buried beneath her sorrow, the creak of her chair echoed down the hall past the closed door of his parent's bedroom as she rocked herself. "They'll use him, Fugaku. They'll use him in this war. They'll make him do things...They will change him."_

 _His father said nothing, the silence worse than the creaking sorrow of his mother._

 _"My baby... my Itachi... cursed."_

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 _._

 _They came together._

 _Danzo and Sarutobi, their faces drawn, their wings fluttering in the wind of a brewing solar storm. Sometimes the galaxy beyond the boundaries of their Realm blasted the moon and the forest of Soul Trees and all the villages between with winds covered in the dust of distant planets. The colored dust, sometimes red, yellow and blue would be gathered eagerly when the bitter winds finally died._

 _Sasuke was already pulling baskets of woven feather grass from the kitchen cupboards. It had been some time since the last storm and they had long run out of dye for their clothes. Soon Itachi would be inaugurated officially into Knighthood. His father and brother would need new robes, new tunics, shining navy blue and black, and if red was to be found in the storm then the Uchiha emblem would be sown into the cuffs of their shirts, showing beneath the black of their armor._

 _The knock on the door confused him and the frown that came over his face deepened when he saw the stiffness of his mother's shoulders, her gaze wide. She was like the pale white does dotted with soft green freckles on their faces and backs that dashed through the Soul Trees during hunting season._

 _"Mother?" Sasuke lowered his young body to the kitchen floor from the counter, watching as she stood mechanically, her neck straight and eyes unseeing._

 _"M..mother?"_

 _"Stay, Sasuke."_

 _He heard her steps, nearly silent on the hall floor, felt himself pulled magnetically to her shadow. Inside him his insides twisted to painful knots that threatened sickness._

 _Sarutobi and Danzo's faces were caricatures. One brazenly bland, unfeeling and cold. The other with eyes honey sweet, pain filled them and overflowed._

 _Elder Sarutobi swallowed, braced on the door frame as Mikoto's shoulders shook, and for a moment Sasuke had a dark painful feeling of irrational fear that his mother was laughing._

 _"Mikoto." Sarutobi began, his eyes flickering behind her to Sasuke even as a sound escaped his mother that he had never heard before._

 _Someone was tearing out her insides, someone was pulling out her heart through her throat. She collapsed, knees slamming to the ground with the sound of anvils and Sarutobi crouched with her, hands on her shoulders. His words were a torrent, her screams a background noise even to the growing buzzing sound at the back of Sasuke's head._

 _"...we tracked down the leaders of the Rebellion, and although it's head is still not clear we are sure to locate it soon. I am sorry, Fugaku did not know... none of us knew... Itachi was there. Itachi was one of them. Itachi fought against us."_

 _Dark eyes focused with an intensity that gave him clear insight to every muscle on Sarutobi's mouth Sasuke watched as he said the next words._

 _"Itachi was the one who slayed Fugaku. I am so sorry."_

 _It was just a sentence, but Sasuke felt the blow down to the very marrow of his bones._

 _His mother explained when he woke that he had fainted, her hand had smoothed his hair from his face even as he stared at the pink swollen lids of her eyes, as she sniffed and wept through her words._

 _"Your brother is a traitor, Sasuke. For now we must bear the shame."_

 _Sasuke stared at the ceiling, at the light of the moon beyond dancing like water on it's bright whiteness, jaw set resolutely, heartbroken by his mother's words._

 _"He's_ not _." His throat ached and it was only afterwards that he realized he must have screamed sometime after hearing the news. "It's a lie. They're_ lying _."_

 _Mikoto's tears continued to fall, her gaze steady on his face. She did not contradict his stubborn denial, only continued with her weeping._

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 _._

 _The memory of the day his world ended was flashes of places and feelings, like a beautiful stained glass window shattered._

 _The rebels attacked unexpectedly, there was no warning and there was no mercy. They came aiming at the civilians, and the knights of the realm were not ready. No one was._

 _There was the light of the suns reflected off the lunar soil, shining into his room as something shocked through the house and shook it to it's foundations. Dust and bookshelves, pottery and frames clattered to the ground as magic choked him from sleep and he fell from his bed._

 _There was his mother's grip tight on his fingers, pulling him out of the door and stopping abruptly to stare at above._

 _There was the sky a blazing black that brightened and flashed with the light of what looked like fireworks exploding in the darkness among the planets that danced far and wide._

 _Another shock wave rolled the soil beneath their feet, making the silvery grasses of the hillside behind their house shiver and dance._

 _His mother's hug was fierce, it pinched and hurt as her armor, so long hiding in storage crushed his ribs, scratched his chin and tangled on his tunic._

 _Her kiss was not gentle, it pressed to his cheek like she aimed to break the bone beneath the soft flesh and her orders echoed in his head, murky as a distorted scream in a hollow cave. He could never remember the words she said in that moment. His eyes had been on the horizon where the tower of the Umbra City's bell was going up in vicious flames._

 _Wings, so rarely sprouted from her back had snapped to life from her shoulder blades. He could count the times he had seen his mother's wings. It was too difficult, she had always laughed, to do chores and have her limbs out._

 _They spread into a whiteness so pure he stared. No hatred, no bitterness, no anger tinged them gray, silver, off white. Pure as snow, pure as the stems of the Soul Trees._

 _At her side the sword once belonging to his father glimmered as she flared her feathers and smiled at her son._

 _He was supposed to follow the protocol for evacuation, he was supposed to rush to the Academy, he was supposed to find Kakashi, or Obito... someone._

 _Instead he watched his mother rise in the sky and then dive, a comet that tangled itself among the exploding magical fireworks in the heavens and cut a sharp descent towards where the hill resolved itself into the endless flatlands between the City borders and the Soul Trees._

 _Everything had died._

 _There was blood, silver and shining splattered in chaotic smears over the lunar rocks of destroyed vegetables and feathered wheats._

 _There were bodies in heaps, their black armor marking them all the same, the only difference between the dead was the blue cloak of the Heavenly Knights and the red of the Rebellion._

 _Magic exploded in fiery bursts, in twisting rips of lightning, in thunderous strength that shattered the moon and decimated their land._

 _Innards were tangled with the limbs of enemy and ally, their eyes vacant._

 _He watched with growing panic as the Soul Tree forest behind it all, flickering through the smoke and magic, shuddered. He could not make sense of the sight, until his eyes located a single tree and watched as the white ivory of it's trunk cracked, bristled and shattered into dust, the tinkling smash of the glass leaves from it's branches adding to the cacophony of battle._

 _What he had thought was panic rising in his chest was sick, and before he could stop it he was on the edge of the hill where a cliff had been carved by explosions of magic and power. He vomited onto the metallic tinged grasses beneath his hands and wondered that his own ill could seem so pure and clean compared to the meaty organs of the fallen on the battlefield._

 _Then he saw it, clear as day._

 _The only pair of wings he could recognize from any distance, besides perhaps his own._

 _Wide and powerful, white and gray and slate black, speckled like those of a hunting bird, predatory and strong._

 _His brother, with the crimson red of his rebels cloak fluttering between the two marred white plumes._

 _It was the end of everything._

 _All he could remember after that was his mother's lips tinged silver with blood, her demands that she take care of his brother, the collapse of her body heavy on his young horrified arms._

 _And his screaming. Endless ragged tears of his vocal chords shrieking, without any hope to stop._

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 _._

 _He woke with the light of the mourning lamps dancing through the open arches of the windows in the healer's ward._

 _Above him the ceilings were painted with the frescoes of many life giving plants only found in the deep wild of Heaven where the waters tasted sweet and the grasses began to be tinged with the green as the leafy canopy of the Soul Trees._

 _He knew this because his mother had spoken to him about it. She spoke about how her own mother had spent much time in the wilderness gathering medicinal plants, learning much about them, always wandering, further and further into the vastness of the heavens until one day she did not come back._

 _Somehow it had not been a sad story. His mother never said it with any particular expression on her face and as a child he had simply assumed that it had been normal. Now he lay in the bed, with his eyes watching the lanterns of fire dance and flicker as the parade of mourners walked past his window and he wondered how he could have possibly been so foolish._

 _Of course it had been a sad story. Mikoto had lost her mother to the Heavens, it had swallowed her up and left nothing for her in return, nothing but stories of the wild and the paintings she covered the ceilings of the healer's wards with every year._

 _It gaped inside him, a hole so big it was threatening to eat him alive as he lay there with his body a limp thing incapable of doing the one thing that he wished it would do. That is, to die._

 _The scream rose as he remembered the stained silver on his mother's lips as she collapsed into his arms on the hillside. It was an animal, wild and ferocious. It tore at his throat and he felt the sharp sting of his vocal chords as he strained to restrain it._

 _His hands, still young despite the sudden abrupt age of his soul rose to his mouth and he slammed them there, pressing hard even as the pressure rose and his eyes filled with tears._

 _No one had to tell him, none of the healers that rushed towards him at the movement had to say it out loud. They watched him with terrified eyes as his gaze, so young and so old flickered from black to red and back again with every beat of his frantic heart._

 _If he let out the shriek that was rising inside him would he ever be able to stop screaming? What would he shout? What would he weep? Would it be his mother he called for?_

 _As the healers pinned his panicking body to the bed, their faces pinched with wariness he caught sight of one familiar face in the fray standing in the corner of the room with his head in his hands and the tiredness of his shoulders giving away the pain within him. His wings draped on the ground with exhaustion and his armor was stained with blood that may or may not have been his._

 _His pale haired head rose to look at him through the many arms of the healers._

 _"Kakashi!" Sasuke's voice escaped him despite the desperate bite of his lip in his attempt to keep his shrieks from leaving his body. The blood coursed down his chin in a mess, coating his teeth as he snarled at the hands of the healers holding him down._

 _"Where is he?" His roar had more people flooding the room, more hands to hold him, more energy to keep his rising hatred from overwhelming them all. "Where is my brother?!"_

 _His feathers so young, so downy fluttered through the room as he thrashed and writhed, heaving for air and growling. The wild beast had not been his scream. It had been himself all along._

 _He should not have been able to hear him in the chaos of the healers shouting at each other and at him but he did, his eyes fixed on Kakashi's mournful face through the fray of silvery feathers once white._

 _"I'm sorry, Sasuke. He got away."_

 _Someone, some kind beautiful soul shoved a rag to his face smelling acrid and suffocating with medication. Roughly they pinned it to his nose and mouth. As he panted the darkness ate away at his new world, this new nightmare he would never wake from, and although he was thankful for the sudden reprieve when he woke the pain remained, as it always would. There was no mother in his life to tell him one day it might fade._

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 _._

 _They could not tell him how long it had been as no one was really keeping track of him for many tolls of the replaced lunar bell after his mother died. As a result when he woke it could have been a week since her death and burial or it could have been a day. Regardless the loss was the same acidic agony that always burned and never waned._

 _It was Obito who found him crumpled on her form, either exhausted by the changes in his soul or the shock it was difficult to say but there were no damages to his body and for that they told him he should be thankful. His proximity to the battle should have resulted in broken bones, maimed wings, spilled ichor and pain._

 _He wanted to tell them how much he wished he too had died._

 _It took months for the realization to dawn on him, for his mind to comprehend more than the act of breathing, eating, sleeping, sitting up to walk when the healers ordered he did._

 _His wings, so young and downy, still barely capable of lifting him aloft were already smeared through with the deep gray of growing hatred. The whispers of the healers, and even Kakashi's face had been carefully placid, unable to disguise the fact that beneath the still surface of their expressions he could see the horror and worry. Their faces were as translucent as water. He was a thing broken. When he finally realized, he also acknowledged that he did not care._

 _Obito came for him the day of his release from the healer's ward. It was one of the few buildings left standing in the city, still covered in the debris of other ancient monuments destroyed in seconds after a millenia of building and careful safe keeping. Histories and the lives work of many angels gone by the brutal magic of Itachi and Danzo._

 _It was Obito who explained in soothing tones, with his hand on Sasuke's back and their legs hanging over the edge of the cliff where his ancestral home had once stood that his brother had fought his own rebellious commander for power in the middle of the war. They were still unsure of why the rebels wounded or otherwise turned and ran into the Veil. They could not fathom what caused them to suddenly admit defeat and despair enough to dive through the forest roots past the skysoil to the Veil below. Many of them were sure to have perished. Sasuke did not mourn the loss of his kind but relished it._

 _"I do realize, from what Master Kakashi has told me that you believed... up until the rebels invaded the city that your brother...did not slay your father?" It was phrased as a question, but Sasuke did not reply. Instead his dark eyes surveyed the empty field. A pyre had been lit with the bodies of the armies, the remnant ashes of the soldiers would eventually be taken away by a solar wind._

 _Beyond the field where the endless stretches of Soul Trees used to crowd, a thin white forest now stood. Every second tree seemed to be gone. Many of the left overs were but saplings, the tallest of the trees were naked and exposed without a crowd of peers to hide behind._

 _Somewhere out there his brother's Soul Tree still thrived. His heart still beat. It was not particularly comforting that Danzo's Soul Tree had vanished, leaving a darkness in the soil where nothing would grow. Sasuke did not count it as a blessing. He wasn't sure he believed in blessings anymore._

 _"I want you to know that I will do whatever I can to help you." Obito's hand on his shoulder was gentle, his eyes sad. "I will make your goal viable."_

 _Sasuke finally turned to look at him, and though his face was that of youth, his eyes were ancient, the pain as bottomless as the blackness of space behind the vignette of the ruined city._

 _"And what is my goal, Obito?" There was snide bitterness in his tone, the biting of the words giving away his feelings of aimlessness._

 _Obito looked surprised, his gaze widening a fraction. "Has...has no one told you? The council has decreed your brother a traitor to our kind." He winced slightly. "The worst of us to fly in our skies as far as our histories remember."_

 _Sasuke remained unmoved. Nothing anyone could say about his brother touched on the hatred that was flourishing within him, blackening his wings feather by feather every day. If Sarutobi had survived the battle and not died trying to protect the city from the rebels perhaps he would have gone to him to spit at his feet, to tell him how his mother had been right. Itachi had not been ready for knighthood. Had not been ready to be used._

 _Inside him his hatred burned, too big for his young frame and he trembled._

 _Obito sighed at the impassive glare he received in return to his statement._

 _"He will forevermore be called the Apostate, and he has fallen from our Skies to the Veil to hide and perhaps amass another army. A dangerous being of his abilities must be stopped. Must be slain."_

 _Sasuke's breath stopped then, as he watched Obito hesitate, as his words lingered unsure on Obito's lips. He knew what they would be and the mixture of relief and horror that rose as he realized brought him utter shame._

 _It seemed, shame was a feeling he could never go too long without._

 _"As his only living kin..." Obito hesitated again, drew another breath, looked down at the silver smeared field, at the boulders and cracked lunar stone, the scorch marks of Itachi's powerful magic and the thunderous chaos of Danzo's own._

 _"...it is expected... required, in fact that you..." He paused, and Sasuke turned away, mildly surprised to feel the relief and horror dissolving inside him into the numb buzz of distraction._

 _"I will have to absolve his sins." He murmured then, taking the burden from Obito, who sighed._

 _"You will be known as the Vindicator, should you achieve your goal." His master whispered softly, the obviousness of his regret more grating than the content of the conversation._

 _"Vindicator." Sasuke snarled, shoving himself up with vicious painful movements. His eyes flickered, black and red and black again in a dizzying haze._

 _He still did not understand the power of his gaze. Those who should have taught him what it was, who should have been there to weep with him over the thing his mother had called a curse were gone. Father, Mother, brother all erased._

 _"Breathe." Obito murmured softly then, staying still while the world fluctuated under Sasuke growing fury, his magic sizzling and hissing through the air and setting his wild black hair to dancing. "Breathe, and let the Crimson Eye fade. You should not attempt to use it." He shook his head._

 _"Why?" Sasuke snapped, fixing him with a look that made Obito's own gaze narrow. Unlike all his other teachers Obito never held his wings free, they curled deeply within his body out of sight, almost like he feared flight. Once Kakashi had insinuated that there had been an incident in their youth, something painful that had stolen the joy of the skies from his dearest friend._

 _Sasuke cared not. He had his own lack of joy to contend with._

 _"The Crimson Eye can kill with a blink, little Uchiha." Obito sighed. "And with every death your wings darken more. It is not a thing easily used. It takes as much as it accomplishes. Never rely on it."_

 _It took several deep breaths to have the magic ripple slowly into calmness, lessening the pressure of the air and the frantic energy on the wind._

 _When his gaze strained no more and he was sure that the crimson was gone from his face he fixed Obito with a furious deadly determination._

 _"I will kill him."_

 _His nod was slow, acknowledging. "Yes, I know."_

 _Turning away to head back towards the building where he had been dumped with the rest of the children his brother had orphaned Sasuke stalked away._

 _"Never call me_ little _again."_

 _He did not see the smile that graced his teacher's face then, focused instead on Kakashi's sudden form alighting from the sky before him, his frown deep his voice tired._

 _"Sasuke, I was wondering where you had gone. Obito- I was told by the elders to retrieve him from the healer's ward. He has an appointment with the Council." Then after a moment Kakashi fixed him with a shrewd gaze. "What have you been talking about?"_

 _Obito shrugged his shoulders, catching Sasuke's wary eye and signalling the secrecy of their conversation with just one look. "Nothing important."_

Withdrawing her hand from the feather Hinata stared, face placid despite the pooling tears in her eyes as blood gathered in the slice the black had made on her palm. Long and deep the crimson rose and settled, trickling down the side and to the glassy sky below her feet.

It's landing made the ground ripple out softly, as did the tears coursing down her cheeks and to her chin. Each drop a small tinkling bell tone so that by the end a symphony of rings tolled, echoing infinitely into the air.

This was a different pain, a different agony than any she had endured before. It was a pit inside her chest, endless and gaping it sucked from the rest of her and stole even her sobs, even her screams.

In the distance however, his voice still wept.

Looking up, dazed by the images that were not her own she swallowed hard, pushing past the edges of the endless field, moving awkwardly through the ever thickening black of his memories captured within his shed feathers.

"Sasuke?"

She gasped, glancing at her knee and the blood coursing from a slice through the skin dripping down her shin, not bothering to stop despite the shout of memory that exploded in her mind at the touch of feather to skin. _"You can't catch me, big brother, you can't!" Peals of childish laughter, the buzz of nectarflies and the swift gusts of solar winds._ Straining to focus on the task at hand she pushed on, ducking and dodging, smearing blood on her face where another feather sliced.

 _"Is that not the younger Uchiha?"_

 _Holding on to mother's hand through the markets, past crowds of winged beings their eyes pale, their hair luminescent._

 _"Yes, I believe so."_

 _Glances furtive and smiles secretive as they whispered, not carefully enough before a child so watchful._

 _"Oh I do not envy him, always living in his brother's shadow."_

"Sasuke!"

Ahead the tangle of black feathers was a knot that shifted as though battered by a wind until she grasped that the cocoon was his wings, shivering and shaking with his sobs.

The sense of peace, of calm that had overwhelmed her on the beach was fading and instead she found herself with a pain in her chest that threatened to consume her completely. There was not enough air, there was not enough space.

Feathers hissed as they spun around her in a deadly dance and she winced and whimpered as the cuts took more of her blood, the droplets leaving a trail of red like rouge across the sky blue ground.

"Sasuke!"

It was impossible not to touch them now, every slice of a feather shooting not just pain but memories through her mind with the agonizing sharpness of a headache. Voices echoed and overlapped, faces faded and warped as they overwhelmed.

 _"Is that all that an Uchiha can do? Harder!" Obito's voice shouting in his ear as he strained through training, feeling muscles scream in protest, feeling magic pour from his body until he thought he was nothing but a long wrung out rag._

 _._

 _._

 _"You need to stop following me Kakashi. I don't need a bodyguard." Kakashi's sad half amused laugh at his young furious voice. "A bodyguard? Sasuke, I'm here to make sure you don't take off before the Council decides you're ready. Let's not pretend you haven't thought about it."_

 _._

 _._

 _"Obito you're going to kill him- stop!" Shouts and screams as he lay on the ground of the training area with his cheek pressed to the lunar stone so warm from the suns light earlier in the day. Blood, silver and potent slipping from him to the rock as his masters shouted and argued, giants in the world where his ears hummed and his body refused to give more. "I'm going to kill him? The Veil will tear him apart if he is not beyond exceptional. His brother can only be defeated swiftly- giving him no time to talk. I am doing him a favor!"_

 _._

 _._

 _Avoiding the crowds of the markets and streets, watching instead from the shadows the tightly wound packs of orphans as they played and jostled together. Their young wings growing stronger each day. Many would be part of the Knighthood and their camaraderie would grow with each passing year. Glancing back one pair of eyes focused on him lurking in the shadows and the disgust there lights like a fire. The child spits in his direction, loathing on his face explaining the subtle bluegray of his feathers smattered like stars across the expanse of white wing. "Uchiha." The name once revered by those of the Heavens is now profanity._

 _._

 _._

 _"Remember I love you, little brother. Remember." Itachi's face as he walked out of their home for the last time , his grip desperate, his face white. The last shaking words spoken before he was forever gone.._

 _._

 _._

The sobs were loud now and the wings just a few steps away in the chaos of twirling spinning black feathers more like knives than anything else, more like trauma, like torture.

The blood was pouring from her now, a thousand paper cuts to bleed her and the crimson splashed onto the watery glass beneath her feet, rippling and diluting into the smoothness with every drop.

Panting she shoved the wings apart, peeling away the tight knot with bloody fingers.

Sasuke was a child, his dark head pressed to his knees, his arms tight around them and his shoulders shaking as he sobbed.

Her voice, soft as a petal alighting on skin escaped her then breathlessly, even as she wiped at a smear of blood trailing down her young face from her brow over her fluttering eyelashes.

"Sasuke."

The head rose, and black eyes stared back at her in obvious shock, the tears smeared all over his cheeks glittering in the light allowed passage past his black wings.

"...what...what are you doing here?"

She felt the abrupt tremble of her chin at his question. Always it was that question, always the disbelief that she had a purpose, that she made a choice.

Her eyes traced the lace pattern of black on his cheek and chin, on his forehead and arms, on his small delicate ankles and tiny pearl toes.

"I... I... I want..." she swallowed the knot of tears, something about that pattern on his skin was frightening. Why couldn't she remember why it was frightening? He needed to get it off. He needed to be free of it.

"You are bloody." His voice wavered, thickening with more sobs, more tears. "Did I...did I do that?" Horror overwhelmed his face and Hinata looked down at her hands, at their smallness covered in the stains of blood from innumerable cuts.

"No." The firm answer was forceful and she clung to that decisiveness. "No! I came here. I wanted to."

"Get away from me!" Sasuke scrambled back then, his small body struggling to put distance between himself and her. "Get away before I- I am- I wreck things- I-"

The lace moved, it shifted on his face and Hinata's heart pulsed painfully in her chest. Eyes wide and terrified she launched forward, throwing her arms over his shoulders and around his neck.

Chest to chest and cheek to cheek she sobbed even as he did, feeling his tears on her face mixing with her blood, stinging in a way she found satisfying for that meant he was close.

"I want to be here. Please let me be here!"

Eyes widening he stared, his chest heaving with helpless gasps as his tears began pouring again, his body shaking.

"If you want me to be here. I'll be here always." Pressing her forehead to his Hinata stared into the young eyes, too old in such a small face. " _Always_."

His arms were around her neck before she knew what was happening, his sobs wracking his body hard against her own and as she watched the wings on his back flared, from the tips moving inwards the white fought the black, inch by inch turning the dark ebony snowy white and as his grip tightened she felt his young uncertain lips on her cheek, wet with the salt of his tears.

It was a broken sound that escaped him, a cracked shattered thing, like the destroying of pottery.

" _Please_."

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	15. Cannot

_**So.**_

 _ **Uh.**_

 ** _I'm sorry. Truly. In all honesty, I have been working on this chapter since I posted the last months ago. I have really struggled moving past the big climactic scenes and so I apologize. I realized however that I needed to just get past this chapter and I would be okay. Or at least I hope that is so._**

 ** _I will warn you this is bad writing. I could not get into this chapter no matter what I tried. I'm really sorry. Gosh, I am still unsure if I should post this but damn, I wanna know what happens next too!_**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

Above him were the dust motes. Glittering pearls of light that drifted through the world in lazy aimless wanderings. The illuminating dusk set the world into a haze of half shadow half-light, brightening the dust to pearls of nothingness, as innocent as snow. As precious as ashes.

Where his mind was slow his body was a riot. His heart was a horse in full gallop, his blood a river overflowing and angry through his veins. Within him, his lungs strained for more and more oxygen and beneath it all, crawling through every particle of his make up was magic, raw and ecstatic, triumphant and joyful and foreign.

In his very molecules, a single name was being chanted, whispered, gasped. Moaned.

 _Hinata, Hinata, Hinata._

The cry that escaped his lips was more human than any he had allowed himself since arriving on the Veil.

It reeked of pain and agony, vulnerability tangled through it as he struggled to his knees. The flutter of his wings breathed a sigh through the darkening room.

She was beside him. Splayed like a thing fallen from the skies. Hair fanned in a blanket of darkness to contrast with the bone white of her face, the thin cracked skin of her lips. With the pallor the freckles on her nose and cheeks stood to attention, shining bright as stars. And as he gasped for air from lungs struggling to comprehend their job he counted each freckle, committing them to memory.

Perhaps, if he always knew the constellations of her skin, then he would never feel lost again.

The sound of the door being flung open had him stepping over her in a moment, wings spreading wide, eyes dark with a ferocity that came to his fingertips easy as the breath overzealous in his lungs.

Kabuto and Anko, with Rasu at their heels, flew into the room, slamming the door closed only to spin and stutter to a stop in their haste, eyes wide, jaws gaping.

"Y-you are alive!" Kabuto's gasp was ill spoken, and before he could say more Sasuke's hand was at his throat, lifting him to slam against the solidity of the door behind him, feet dangling off the floor.

Anko's feral growl was cut off with a wave of his other hand, sending her sprawling backward to crash against a shelf covered wall. The shatter of glass, the cracking of pottery harmonized with her guttural cry as items were rankled by her body's collision.

"You have only a moment to explain what has happened." Sasuke murmured softly, the metallic tinge of magic darkening his calm voice, thickening the air already sparse in Kabuto's choked throat. "Speak quickly."

"I... I did not know if the tears would be sufficient to save...to save you- Hinata demanded- she didn't... I tried to tell her not to- but she- it..." Kabuto paused, choking on the thickening air, on the sparks of magic that were fizzling lazily through the room, paralyzing him.

"The Chattels are hunting for her! Please! If they sense your power they will find her. The Worm wants her!" Sasuke's replying growl and the tightening of his fist made him pause, eyes wide and wild with panic.

"I healed you."

Before Kabuto could say more Hinata's voice cut in, setting Rasu's tail to wagging, his panting head shoving past Sasuke's dark wings to get to his adopted mother.

Suddenly unimportant Kabuto hit the ground with the same care as discarded debris.

Breathless herself and with dark shadows beneath her powerful eyes, Hinata stared at him from her crumpled place on the ground.

There was a war within him, the fiery chaos of anger at her disobedience, at her gall as she stared back, calm in her defiance, serene in her vulnerability. And then there was something else, as fierce and overwhelming, swimming through his veins at the sight of her, making the stones beneath his feet seem to sway.

He grabbed onto the anger like a man lost at sea, clinging to the familiarity of the emotion that had served him faithfully for most of his life.

 _Healed._

Memories. They were an avalanche upon him, a thousand faces and smiles and hugs. A million words and cries and laughs. Moments all strung together, the better to beat him senseless.

Hatred had demanded all these things, all the preciousness of a childhood destroyed. The monster of his vengeance had needed to be fed, had required sacrifice and Sasuke had been too eager to feed him the years past. The lies. All these things, precious as they were had been cast into the furnace of his loathing and somehow she had taken the ashes...

She had cast something beautiful out of them.

It had been so very long since he had dwelled on his mother's face to see anything other than her dying. Decades since the last time his brother's young innocent smile had fluttered through his thoughts.

And now, a tsunami of these vignettes hurtled through him, sharp as glass, bitter as enemy blood in the mouth.

It was abrupt and wrong. So much wrongness in his movement at the snap of his limbs to her, drawing a cry from both Anko and Kabuto. A startled yip from Rasu. His body was singing with her, a note struck to echo through the world. He was a bell swung by her small hand, everything about him poised to her very breath.

Silent, unlike the rest Hinata felt his hands tight and painful at her arms as he dragged her to her feet, before shaking her so her hair tangled messily in her face.

"I ordered you to stay with Kabuto." The snarl was vicious, the pop of electricity through the room accompanied by the flutter of a breeze swirling set Hinata's hair to dancing. Unaffected she continued to stare back, lips pressed firmly together.

"I... I know you did."

"You had no right." His eyes snapped to the bottle that had been so carelessly discarded once emptied of its priceless contents, the wax seal broken, the familiar shape lacking the silvery glow of the tears that had been within.

Finally, a frown cracked her smooth placid face, just the barest turn of her dark brow, the smallest crinkling of her gaze.

"I ...I had to."

His panting breath was that of a beast before slaughtering, the hungry predatory growl of a lion poised for a kill. His glare alone would have set grown men cowering but she blinked back slowly, face still and smooth like an undisturbed pond.

"You disobeyed a direct order. I told you to stay, you had no right making decisions when I could not- when I was-"

"Dying!" Hinata's fingers were white where she clenched her fists at her sides, her breath coming in short furtive gasps and he growled at her tone. "You were dying!"

"Tears, that is what sustains me. Weeping, gnashing of teeth, despair." He snarled. "If you are seeking mercy, you will find none."

Her eyes were dry, infuriating in her calm. The tears clung to her lashes like an afterthought, distracted from falling by the disaster he was making.

Softly, like telling him a secret she set the words poised on her lips free. "You already showed me mercy when you spared my sister's life."

He had never been silenced before but to his already flummoxed mind the concept that it was happening set him to staring, breathing hard.

"You could have slain her and taken me regardless."

"Stop."

"You could have left me for dead many times."

" _Stop_." The grip on her arms was growing sharp, the knuckles of his hands white as her own pale face stared calmly back.

"I saved your life." She let out a breath and he felt the tickle of it on his lips, dizzying. "I did not have to- by your orders, I should not have been there to do it. But I did. You need me..." She hesitated then, searching the dark simmering coal of his gaze.

The word _need_ set his teeth to clenching, the anger slipping and sliding in his hands like a wet bar of soap in a hot bath. It smacked of a truth too sharp to hold tightly, to heavy to lift and desperately he scoffed, his glare rancid with disdain. "And why could I possibly have need of you?"

Hinata wrestled an arm free, reaching behind him and he froze, stunned as her fingers traced along the solid muscle of his wings. She could not have known, he was sure, the intimacy of the action. Could not have known the startled gasp of air he choked on as her fingers dug into the black of his feathers. She had no idea how hard he had to work to stay still, to not shudder.

Pulling back Hinata twisted a feather between her fingers and his eyes widened, the gasp he had been holding so tightly escaping his lips.

"You need me." She blinked slowly, her pale eyes looking at the feather, raising her gaze finally to his dark, the color of her eyes and the color of the feather the same snowy white. "I think I need you-" she paused then, watching the stillness of his face, the sudden silence of his breath. "I...I need you to help me too. Please..."

A long moment passed, the seconds ticking away with the pulse of his heart in his throat and the monumental knowledge that she had done this. What her tears and her affection and her selflessness had accomplished was fight back a thing he had no control over. Hatred he had never been able to restrain.

His released sigh fluttered through the darkness of her hair, and Hinata swallowed, watching the healthy pink of his mouth part slowly, the flash of his tongue licking his lip making something primal and unfamiliar tighten within her painfully.

"What exactly do you need my help for, Princess?"

Softly she forced her eyes up, forced her mouth to form the words.

"I need you to help me save the Veil."

No surprise flickered on his face, no hint of shock although something else, brief as the beat of a butterfly wing in bright summer light flashed over his features and was gone as quick as it came.

"Is that all."

There was no time to ask more. No time to watch the yearning flood her face and urge her fingers towards his.

The door so recently slammed shut exploded with the force of a dozen cannons firing, splinters and metal shattered sending everyone in a heap onto the floor.

Curled in Sasuke's arms, armored by his wings Hinata cried out, hands flung over her eyes to protect them as the Chattels stepped through the wreckage of the doorway, chests heaving hard with the force of their magic.

Wings cramped in the low ceiling still batted the wooden debris that exploded at the Chattels entrance, as easily as lifting a brow, as simply as drawing breath. There was an ease and calm to his movements despite the rapid acceleration of glowing silver beneath his skin as his heart sped. Ancient and unshaken he gazed at them, arms wrapped around Hinata's shaking shoulders carefully.

In contrast, the Chattels looked like rabid pups. Mangy and fangs bared they panted before their opponent, hands sticky with sweat on hilts that glimmered in the dying light of the sun behind the Star they sought.

The hiss of their voices was grating as glass, as though their vocal chords had been sawed to ribbons and healed into a macabre parody of sound. It was more unnerving that they whispered.

"Here hides the Fallen One."

"Coward."

"Murderer."

The one in the middle raised her blade, pointing at Hinata like taking aim for a javelin throw. "The White Eyed Witch has kept you breathing, and for that, she will die."

Kabuto shuddered behind Sasuke's shoulder, watching as the pupils at the center of each of the Chattel's eyes bled darkness into a slice of black like a snake in each eye, their teeth lengthening to fangs in their widening mouths.

Sasuke's face was placid as he looked back at the three creatures, his shoulders relaxed.

"What are they?" His murmur was dark as the panting anticipatory gasps of a beast before slaughtering. Heat radiated off him in waves as the solar flares of distant stars.

"...tests conducted by the Worm." Kabuto struggled with the words. "I know not what they're capable of. I could not stomach the procedures without..." He winced, remembering the many times he had crawled from the Worm's domain, covered in his own vomit and trembling.

"Ender of Worlds." The Chattel hissed, bodies sliding into battle stance.

"Will you face your death for the murder of the Rot Clan? Or will you do battle?" The one in the middle snarled this with venom, too angry to realize their mistake. Too hateful to think about the danger before them.

Kabuto shook his head, his glasses spiderwebbed with cracks.

"You fools." His whisper was defeated and mourning. "You _fools_."

Calmly Sasuke slid Hinata to her feet, pushing her back with a firm hand. Legs still unsteady beneath her, Hinata stumbled, grabbing hold of the roughness of the wall. Her eyes widened as the pale skin so beautiful before now shimmered and glowed with the river patterns of silver blood through his flesh.

Terror, it was knives tearing at her throat. The hair on the back of her neck rising on end, her stomach clenching and her muscles tightening as his essence began to overflow, to encompass the entire hall.

He had seemed...foreign but familiar. Similar. Alive as she was, blood bone and sinew. Now, with his health restored, his power roaring Hinata felt herself struggling back. Scorched by the brutality of his magic and fury, fighting down the fear as realization dawned on her. This being was not as she was. This was an ever-growing wildfire, a forever reaching star, a unsatiated burn.

"If it is battle you seek, you have sought in futility." His whisper was a crackling sun ever exploding. His gaze shimmered from black to blood red, and shadowed by his wings he was a demon thing, unfazed by their own monstrosity in light of his own. Face placid amid the chaos of his growing magic he closed his eyes before the three beings that had dared threaten the thing now most tangled in his heartstrings.

"Death, however." He continued, raising a palm to the suddenly stunned monsters before him. "Death you have found overflowing."

And with the same shattering scream of a lightning strike on wet ground, with the same roar of a thunderstorm mid-tantrum, his magic exploded through the world, dragging their fear from their throats in shredded ribbons.

* * *

The news that the last heiress had disappeared in the night had not been taken well. Despite the insistence of Grandelder and Hiashi, there were rumors that it had been an elopement. No one who had ever seen Konohamaru look at Hanabi could have argued with the idea, and so the rumor persisted despite their unshakeable stance.

This, of course, did nothing to dissuade the Dowager Hawk. With her head held high, she had arrived the morning after the departure in full elder regalia, eyes lined in kohl and robes smooth as silk in water.

Behind her had followed the Elder who had supported her stance at the last council meeting.

"So." She began without much ado at all, not acknowledging the polite morning bow her son afforded her as she approached. "She has run."

"Contrary to the rumors I am sure you have heard, Hanabi has done her duty as per your description and headed in the direction of the Star," Hiashi replied simply, straining to remain respectful to the woman who had given him life.

Her smile was acid, but still, the undeniable beauty that she had been in youth shone through the wrinkled skin. It was nerve wrecking that she could be more beautiful while livid than while cheerful.

"Please do not lie to me, I had thought I had done a much better job at raising you than that." She let out a breath that shook her sturdy frame and Hiashi felt his teeth ache from clenching.

"Tell me then, Mother what it is you think I lie about."

"She has gone for her sister, disregarded her duties altogether. Like your envoy with the Warren and the Shadows, she goes not after what this Valley needs but what her heart desires. A foolish errand. I am stunned that the only creature in your household with enough sense to put service to our people before her feelings and well being was Hinata, the weakest of your-"

"I will have you stop there." Hiashi cut in sharply and his mother paused, stunned. There were no memories within her to say that she had ever been interrupted by her own child before and the shock had rendered her mute if only for a moment.

"Do what you wish, believe what you wish but do not dare to suggest that either of my daughters are anything but deserving of their titles." And one step brought him into proximity of his mother that he doubted he had ever been since birth. "I raised them hard, by your decree and I realize now that perhaps they have resulted in who they are in spite of this not thanks to it." His gaze studied the stunned look on her face, watching as she battled to get a grip on her rankled emotions.

"So this is what this is going to be like. Here I was hoping that I could ask you politely to step aside and have a more capable family enter the fold of keepers of the Hawk Eyed but I see that we have all now bared or teeth like animals." Her quiet voice was the slide of steel against skin and Hiashi almost laughed.

"Mother, if there is anyone who lives with a snarl on her face... it is you."

The removal of Hiashi as leader of the Clan was a simple matter. Unlike her assumption of war, he stepped quietly into the shadows to wait and pray. He did not have to wait long.

It was hardly a fortnight since their departure when cries of her arrival reached the Villa and Hiashi looked long and hard at his father in law.

In his rooms the suns set the world to gold and orange, the setting of Solatta was always the most beautiful time of day and the hardest for Hiashi.

It was during this time that his wife had been the most affectionate, with soft touches to his face, with smiles as she kissed his neck. When their girls had been born it had been the dusk when they had spent the most time in the presence of their father, after long days in the fields or forests, in council meetings or doing inspections of the land and the encroaching Rot.

Their hands, soft and feminine and belonging to him as he belonged to them had soothed him. Now all three were gone.

His father in law had taken to staying with him through the dusk, sipping on tea in the silence and watching as Hiashi stared stonily at the sky. He watched as it bled his sorrow from honey yellow to orange and red to pink, finally succumbing to the navy blue of the night.

However, this night was different.

"My Lord Hiashi!"

Cries, exclamation broke the stillness that had taken over the Villa at the arrival of the Dowager Hawk and the new Clan Head, the son of the Elder who had supported the Dowager so stoutly.

This break in the stunned hush of the Villa had both Hiashi and his father in law rising, teacups clattering to the table as they stepped out into the verandah and stared at the boy who rushed into the courtyard, panting and sweaty.

"My Lord! The heiress, she has returned!"

"Hinata?" Hiashi blinked hard, starting into the courtyard in time to see his daughter enter.

Behind her the village had followed, the crowd came with wide eyes and children streaming between tall adult legs, pushing to get a closer look at the wild thing that been spat from the forest outskirts.

And wild she was. For a moment Hiashi was stunned to silence. Where he had thought he knew the flaming creature that was his youngest daughter he realized that for much of her life she had been contained, a coal barely lit, just simmering beneath the surface of her skin.

This thing that now walked purposefully forward was no coal.

Wildfire. Hell itself.

Mane a wild tangle of brambles and knots, face smeared with dirt and blood, clothes tattered and weapons tight within reach, Hanabi was a monster from the forest deep. Behind her, Konohamaru walked with the tangled shreds of makeshift bandages about his hands and neck. Blood had dried to clotted darkness on his collarbone, visible through the fabric of his tattered tunic.

In sync with his Opaque before him, he followed with glares at anyone who made eye contact. By contrast, Hanabi had eyes locked on the stern shape of her grandmother approaching.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Like the collision of a forest aflame to the wall of a mountain Hiashi watched, stunned as his daughter stormed forward past the elders now gaping at her entrance to the Dowager Hawk standing tall and proud among the many heads of her chosen Clan.

"We came back." She murmured, and at her side, Konohamaru seemed to become more, taller, wider, deadlier. His hands lingered at his hip where hunting knives that had obviously been in use lay sheathed.

"We have barely a day's time to prepare. There are invaders on the way to the Valley." She turned to her father then, ignoring her grandmother's gaping mouth.

"I counted more than three dozen well armed, well-trained men and surely more I did not see. They come with a goal in mind and the motivation to accomplish. I need the village mobilized into the villa now. We were spotted, they know we will be prepared." She waved a hand at the master who taught her much of what she knew. "I need all of your foragers called back immediately, I don't want them engaging with a scout on their own they wouldn't know what hit them. Send your fastest messenger now."

"Stop!" The Dowager gasped then, stepping in her way. "You have no authority here- even if your family had not been voted out of leadership, you abandoned this Valley to-"

"Silence." Hanabi snapped, although it was barely a contained shout. "I have been trained since I could crawl to defend this Valley, this Village, and these people. It has been bred into my blood, it is the reason my eyes can see every gray hair on your head at an arrows distance." Nose flaring she waved a hand at the crowd standing still by the doors of the Villa witnessing the exchange between the immaculately dressed Dowager and the wild bloodstained and dirty heiress.

"There is no one here who knows how best to serve them and no one here who has been taught to die for them. No one. I came back when I could have abandoned you all to your fate. But even still, putting all that aside." She drew her sword, twirling the metal effortlessly in her hand so that it sang.

"I am more than willing to prove my worth as protector." She spun, looking from face to face, dark hair flaring around her as she searched for looks of discontent although all she could find was awe.

Behind the Dowager the man who had been pompously walking around ordering everyone in a low authoritative voice stared, face pale and hands decidedly empty of a weapon although a sword hung at his hip.

For a moment the silence was broken only by the hushed whispers of those watching for hands moving towards blades, for shoulders squared to take on the challenge, to dismount the heiress from her place of authority.

Spluttering in disbelief at the silence of her pawn the Dowager turned back to her granddaughter, uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

When silence was the only response to Hanabi's proclamation she turned back to the man she had been speaking to, pointing.

"Get those foragers back into the Village, order them to evacuate the people on the outskirts towards the villa and report back here for orders. Do it now."

Without hesitation, he bowed. "Lady Hanabi."

Aghast and still failing to find words the Dowager Hawk continued to stare at this new creature she had never imagined hid beneath the skin of the loud and unrefined young girl she had looked at with such disdain less than a month past.

"I would suggest that you get your affairs in order and get out of my way for the duration of this, Grandmother." Hanabi continued sharply. "I have no time to waste on your need for political drama, right now I am busy trying to keep everyone alive." Turning away she nodded at Konohamaru. "You know what to do."

Smirking in a way that suggested he wanted nothing more than to kiss her he nodded, stepped back and spun.

"Archers! Gather your weaponry and meet me on the outposts."

Turning finally to her father Hanabi let out a quick breath and reached up to press a kiss first on his cheek then her grandfather's forehead.

"Change of plans, I'm afraid."

Hiashi just looked at her, searching her face for something although he wasn't sure of what.

"I'm not." He wiped a smudge of dirt from her cheek with his thumb as she smiled grimly and stepped back into the fray of organizing the village to action.

Watching her go he let out a long breath he had been holding since the departure of both his daughters.

"I am not afraid."

* * *

If they had thought that the Worm was more fearsome than he, they had been wrong. Slowly, with the same care he took with everything his magic flared.

It was not the gusts of wind from before, the unsteady wielding of a sword by a tired hand. No, this was a painter's brush, a scholar's pen, a carver's skillful knife.

With the air thick as water, and the spastic snaps of electricity shining like fireworks in the semi-darkness the Chattels were thrown backward, slamming into the dark uneven stone of the mountain wall where the corridor had been carved.

Their shrieks were muffled and torn things, the whites of their eyes showing wide and terrified as the wall reached to embrace them. Rapid and willing the mountain danced to Sasuke's silent call, melting like heated chocolate beneath the relentless fire of his anger.

Black as tar and twisting with strange frantic movements the stone bled around their bodies, sucking hard on limbs so that the Chattels flailed and clawed at the darkness consuming them inch by inch as they screamed.

"Die."

Softly, whispering to himself he let one word escape him, sighed because it came so easily, this culling. With Hinata's life rushing through him they were nothing, like crushing moths between a stone and his firm unyielding palm.

"No!"

Her arms were suddenly around his waist, he could feel the press of her cheek, the heat of her skin, the rasp of her breath between his shoulder blades, tickling the feathers on his wings. "Sasuke. Sasuke, please- stop!"

Tears, they were wet and hot as boiling rain, staining his tunic where she pressed her face so hard, listening to the rapid beat of his heart within his torso. "Please!"

The hatred rumbled low within him, annoyed and dissatisfied even as the Chattels begged and pleaded, thrashed and screamed.

He did not let himself think through his actions. As rapidly as the magic had overwhelmed it snapped into nothingness, filling everyone's lungs with soft pliable air that was easily breathed.

The black of the coming night swallowed them all then and from behind only the light of the moon now glimmered through the lattice of the window, shedding a haze of coolness over Hinata's arms tangled on his chest, her knuckles white with a grip that trembled.

Still wrapped in the stone now solid and unmoving the Chattels panted loudly for air, their foreheads dripping with sweat. Behind them, Kabuto, Anko and Rasu shuddered and shook, eyes wide and bodies carefully frozen in place lest they draw attention from the creature that roared so easily with death in his hands.

He wanted to tell himself the rush of blood like a river in his ears was the strain of the magic, the one side effect of calling an ancient thing like that mountain to do his bidding, but even as he thought it he knew it to be a lie.

Her hands.

He stared at them, at the long fingers gripping him like to release would be to die. The curve of her cheek against his back, the softness of her body trembling against him. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathed in and felt the strain of her arms around him before turning around.

Hinata grunted softly, stumbling as her knees succumbed to the pull of gravity when the solidity of his body was taken from her.

"Fool," he whispered, catching her firmly. "What good will it do to leave these three obscenities alive?" In his mind he could see their hands eager to slay, determined and hateful wrapped around her throat, pushing, pushing, pushing.

Panting and dizzy Hinata frowned, lifting her gaze to pierce him again with her stare. "They think we slayed their clan, their family, their friends." she let that hang for a moment, let the words play pictures of his own family, his own clan, his own life before him. Fresh from the pits of his despair she had dredged it all up and he could see that life in her eyes, could see himself soul bared naked before her.

Clenching his jaw at the revulsion he felt he glared, determined to keep tears from even considering their place in his black gaze.

"We owe them... an explanation."

Finally swallowing his fear Rasu keened, moving slowly forward in hope of his mother's attention. Breaking the glare they were exchanging Hinata sighed deeply, reaching for Rasu's head with the help of Sasuke's supporting grip still around her.

"Good boy, Rasu." Gently, she lifted her gaze from the horkney's massive head and sighed at Anko and Kabuto's uncertain wide eyes watching her.

"Please."

Startled Hinata turned towards the Chattels. Black stone had tangled over their throats, had crawled along their cheeks, threatening at the corners of their mouths slow painful suffocation. With their bodies largely encased their eyes were more terrible as they shifted anxiously.

"Please.." their hoarse tattered voices came slow and uneven, jumping from girl to girl so that they were never a hundred percent sure who of the three spoke. "He will slay them all. He will hang them from their collars, he will punish us through them. Please."

Sasuke's frown was merciless and so their eyes remained fixated with a mixture of resentment and desperation on Hinata. "Please. There are children. There are babes."

With her joints aching and her head a tangle of cobwebs Hinata tried to understand, blinking her blurring vision slowly.

Whatever she had given at the pouring of the angel tears it was now making itself known and clumsily she grabbed at Sasuke, feeling the world teeter and toss like a ship in a stormy sea.

"...the collars." She finally whispered, feeling through the fog as Sasuke's arms picked her up easily. "The slave collars. We have to..." eyes glazed and face paling she sighed, feeling with a strange lack of panic as her body relaxed inexplicably and her world faded to black.

Rasu's whining worry matched Sasuke's tight-lipped frown as Hinata's head hung back, exposing the length of pale white neck and the slow soothing beat of blood at her jugular.

"She needs rest." Kabuto's whisper was uncertain, and Sasuke did not bother looking at him as he spoke. "She will need to sleep to regain the strength she has given for you."

"The collars." Sasuke snapped then, glancing briefly at the Chattels and causing them to stir nervously.

Slowly Kabuto approached, straightening his blue robes carefully. Behind him, Anko stood perfectly still, as though in the presence of a cobra. "The collars demand their fielty. They tighten to suffocation if we try to leave... or if he is displeased."

If Hinata was not brought to the Worm to bring him relief from the arrow through the eye he could see the Profane's displeasure taking lives. His gaze lifted then to the Chattels still tangled in the stone, eyes fixated on him eerily.

"You will remain there." He muttered, sweeping down the hall and past them as though they were nothing more than the stone that nearly took their lives.

"Please! Please!" their shrieks were muffled and stiff, their bodies once more thrashing in their impossible cage. Uncertainly, Rasu Anko and Kabuto brought up the rear, the blonde's throat bobbing as he swallowed his fear.

"L..Lord Star... the slaves- I beg you to consider-"

"Save your breath." Sasuke snapped irritably, the flex of his magic making the corridor groan to contain the power as he stormed on. "I will break the collars."

Startled and wide-eyed Kabuto said nothing, catching his joy and hope before letting it attack the star before him in an unwelcome show of gratitude. Nervously he and Anko glanced at each other, and then together looked at the girl in the Star's arms.

With Hinata's limp body in his grip Sasuke sighed, listening always for her slow steady breaths, and the constant movement of her blood in her veins as reassurance.

He had no choice in regards to the collars, after all. It was what she would have wanted.

* * *

There had been more than just silence from the two shadows that did not belong to him. It was something he had not thought possible but Shino and Kiba had proved to be masters at, speaking loudly without words, saying much with no sound.

In the darkness of the forest that had nearly slain them all he wandered with their eyes on his back, sharp and resentful, bitter and angry.

It would have been intolerable and therefore stopped if he did not resent himself as much as they did.

Only Lee spoke to him now, his gentleness and respect unshakable in the face of Tenten's sudden inexplicable withdrawal and the open fury of Hinata's shadows.

"Two more days?" Lee murmured softly as they stopped to make camp. Above them the suns waned into the thickness of the clouds, casting their paint of red and orange, yellow and gold through the cotton clouds in spirited spurts.

Neji studied the heavens with hands balled tight at his sides, aching with the desire to hold Tenten's, to feel the strong cords of her arms, the heat of her skin beneath his palms to soothe his own uncertainty.

"Perhaps less, if we keep up the pace." He let out a soft breath, catching the first sparkling light of a brightly burning star through the myriads of purple and crimson tainting the heavens.

Lee glanced back, studying the trio behind him. Tenten murmured softly to Akamaru, scratching his head while Kiba scouted the area where they would make camp. The trees were densely packed here, the ground soggy from past rains held by thick gray moss like tangled shredded wire. It was not a great place for resting. The lichen hung in streams from thick branches and could hide many pincered insects, the moss would muffle paws on the ground, the clearing above left them open for anything flying above.

But to find a different place to rest would require more walking that would deviate from their laser beam goal of reaching the Valley at the same time or right after the Rot Clan. They knew not the paths to take that would save time, or limb depending on the terrain's treachery. All Neji could do was pray he was skilled enough to arrive in time to help his youngest ward.

"Warren." Lee's hand was suddenly on Neji's shoulder, a steadying hand as much as a guiding one and a glance at his friend's face had Neji following his gaze.

He had been distracted by the brilliance of the dusk. Had been lulled by his tangled thoughts as messy as the moss beneath his feet. Like a puff from a pipe, a slash of gray and black rose into the heavens from the direction of their destination, tall and twisting in a breeze too far from them to feel.

Neji did not need the blessing of eyes sharp as those of a hawk to know what that was, and what was burning.

Blood thinning in his veins, air stuck uselessly in his chest, he stared.

" _ **No**_."

"Is that...?" Tenten whispered and could not finish as she rose from her crouch, following Shino's stare at the plumes of smoke that reached for the clouds above in desperation.

"No." Neji hissed.

Breaking through the bracken as loudly as a horde of hound-pigs stampeding Kiba exploded into the clearing, scratched by branches and thorns, covered in thistles and breathless.

"There's smoke!" He snapped, stopping abruptly at the sight of all of his comrades looking towards the sky already in horror.

"That is where our Valley lies," Tenten whispered softly, holding Akamaru close to her chest and feeling the rapid heartbeat within his tiny rib cage in rhythm with her own.

"We must go." Lee snapped, turning to Neji with fire burning in his veins. "Lord Warren. We must go now."

Slowly, Neji turned back to look at his friend, his companion, and shadow, pale eyes dim where they had always shone with intelligence and determination before.

"What if there is nothing but ashes, Lee?"

Lee's gaze was pained, lips pressed thinly as he stared back, flabbergasted by the despair so visible on the face he trusted the most.

Before he could scramble for words however, Tenten was pushing her way between the two men, brow furrowed.

"No." Her body was poised for fighting, every muscle a knot. "If there is fire, we will quench it." Her voice was so low it growled, so bitter it stung his ears. "If there is blood we will tourniquet. If there are ashes..." she glared at Neji decidedly. "...if there are ashes, we will avenge. For our glory."

Neji let out a breath, feeling each of her own restrained pants on his lips as he stared at her, this creature without which he would not be able to stand.

Hoarsely he whispered, "And for those of the Hawk Eyed Clan."

Kiba and Shino stepped forward then, faces pinched tight with determination. "Lord Warren, at your bidding."

There would be no resting for them, the shadows of an heiress far from home. They would be her hands, they would fight and defend, they would heal and comfort, they would avenge.

Thankful for Tenten's contained energy shuddering in her slim shape Lee sighed, nodding at his opaque firmly. "Lord Warren."

Mouth tasting bitter and heart heavy Neji glared up at the smoke billowing high, dragging in a long breath before nodding.

"Let's move."

 _I'm coming, Hanabi. I'm coming._

* * *

She woke with her heart in her throat and her lungs aching. Sitting up sharply, she winced and strangled a groan. All of her ribs ached as she breathed, joints complaining with each movement, head thick and heavy with a throbbing pain that stemmed from her spine up into the very back of her eyes.

Eyes which she had to blink rapidly to focus, making the heart tired and aching in her chest accelerate.

Nothing was clear, for several rapid breaths only shadows and swatches of color in odd shapeless forms swam before her gaze until finally the darkness faded and the covers heavy on her body became visible.

She was in a bed, the four posters hanging heavy with curtains dark wine red and thick pulled tight so that light from beyond poked through like a myriad of strange stars.

The mattress below her was soft and yet still made her ache as she struggled to adjust herself to sitting, the pillows numerous and downy still drawing a wince from her face as she leaned back, tired out by the simple act of existing.

Memories of dreams drifted unsteadily through her mind like fog. Sasuke's young face and a world that she had never seen before flared as brightly as her own mother's voice, her sister's laugh, her brother's raised sarcastic brow.

The wet slopping sound of licking made her freeze abruptly, blinking her slowly clearing eyes as she assessed the noise and where it came from. On the other side of the curtain, the crackle and pop of a fire in a grate complained and as she came more fully to herself she recognized the smell of wood smoke and the crunch of bone and sinew between Rasu's sharp teeth.

Tears jumped suddenly to her eyes at the thought of a familiar face in this confusing moment and uncertainly she whispered, "R...Rasu?"

A yip of a reply was followed by the curtain being abruptly pulled back to reveal Anko, eyes wide and relieved standing at her bedside, Rasu at her hip with his tail wagging hard and fast at the sight of her.

"Hinata! Oh, thank the Veil!"

"Anko." Confusion flitted over Hinata's features for a moment, the smell of ashes having brought forth thoughts of Sasuke's smirk.

"How are you feeling?" Anko's hand was suddenly on Hinata's brow, feeling as though for a temperature. "You have been asleep for three days. Everyone was starting to get very anxious. Even Rasu was getting snippy with me."

Hinata stared some more, her eyes flicking between the horkney with his giant head now resting at her feet, tongue pink and long out between sharp incisors in a heart-melting smile.

"...Anko.. I... are you not terrified of-"

"This?" Anko grinned, pressing her hand on Amaterasu's giant black head, rubbing lightly behind one floppy ear to his utter delight. "With your star walking around I have grown rather less impressed by Rasu's scary countenance. In comparison, he's a dream."

Mouth falling open at the words "your star" Hinata blinked at her slowly, glancing between the tail wagging horkney and the young woman smirking at her.

"I am so very glad you have woken." Anko continued, adjusting her robes around herself with calm fingers. "I am sure Kabuto and the Lord Star will be here shortly. They have been very busy these last three days."

"Sasuke is all right?" Finally, the words seem to form a coherent sentence on her tongue and careful to keep her face placid Hinata asked, watching intently for Anko's response. A furtive smile and the barest lift of an eyebrow later she nodded, sliding back into the chair by the fire that she had been occupying before hearing Hinata's uncertain voice.

"He has spent most of the last three days taking the slave collars off the Rot Clan. Between him and Kabuto's brains they figured out how to undo the spell." Smiling a little she sighed. "They've been purging the Chattels of the Profane's blood as well. Kabuto cannot make heads or tails of them following him around like pups. If he's not around they're at your Star's heels. They're worse than Rasu."

Irritably the horkney let out a grunt of displeasure, fixing his gold gaze on Anko with disdain at the insult.

With her small smile still placed firmly on her lips, Anko lifted her eyes to Hinata again, expecting astonishment on her face, shock and awe.

Instead, the Hawk Eyed Princess had curled back onto her side, dizzy from her efforts sitting up with limbs still sore and aching. Eyes half closed she sighed deeply, studying her fingers and the cracked nails she had managed to gain somehow in the fray of battle now many days past.

"He must be so tired." Her whisper made Anko scoff, rising only to settle at the edge of Hinata's bed with a frown, her long fingers pushing back the dark locks of hair tangled across the girl's face with a maternal sort of care.

"I cannot believe that you would say that in your state. Kabuto is stunned that you made it. That you stood and demanded he stop before slaughtering those three girls at the Dispensary." Shaking her head slightly she pressed her hand once more to Hinata's brow. "You... you saved a lot of lives that day, Princess."

The frown that marred Hinata's face was felt beneath Anko's palm, tired and without force. "I am no princess, Anko."

Smirking very wide now Anko leaned down, whispering into her ear carefully. "So then... why does the Star call you so?"

Flinching Hinata moved to push herself back up onto her elbow, words fumbling to come out of her mouth in a torrent. Before she could get anything out that made sense, however, the sound of a door cut off from view by the curtains of her bed creaked loudly as it opened.

"Anko?" Kabuto called softly, the door closing with a hardly audible clank of the metal doorknob.

"Kabuto, perfect timing." Smiling secretively at the weary girl on the bed Anko rose, moving to pull the curtains back easily. "She has finally woken."

No sooner had the words come out of her mouth than Kabuto was rushing around the bed to Hianta's side, eyes wide behind the still cracked spectacles sitting on the bridge of his nose.

As always garbed in his usual blue Kabuto's gaze was enormous as he reached forward, taking Hinata's hands in his with a boldness she did not recall him having. Startled she stared, mouth open in surprise as he searched her face earnestly.

"I... I was not sure you would wake- I was going to tell him to use his blood if you did not by tomorrow. I am so glad." He blinked hard and as if suddenly realizing himself dropped her hands and stepped back, suddenly pink in the face and startled. "I.. sorry. I'm... I must apologize, Hinata. I could not have made your task any harder if I tried-"

Wide-eyed still Hinata shook her head. "Oh.. no. Please, Kabuto... please don't-"

"No, no." Anko chided, finally finished drawing all the curtains and tying them off in velvet ribbons before putting her hands on her hips. "Let the boy finish. Apologizing is good for the soul. No, Kabuto? Give us your professional opinion as a healer."

Flushing still the blonde fixed Anko with a glare half hidden by the brightness of the noonday suns pouring through the lattice covered window of the room.

"I am sorry." He continued stiffly, hands laced behind his back tightly, eyes on the floor. "I am ashamed to admit that fear dominated much of my decisions that day." Raising his gaze he lingered with some effort on her face. "I hope... one day to behave as you do when faced with challenges."

In utter disbelief and rather pink herself, Hinata gaped, perfectly still but for the tired racing of her heart in her chest. "I... I didn't-"

"He means he wishes to be brave, dear." Anko cut in, straightening her covers absently, a wry smile on her face still.

More exhausted now than even before Hinata swayed, and closing her eyes settled back on the pillows, aware of the heat on her face only dimly as dizziness took over her head.

"You should not strain yourself," Kabuto muttered then, his cool fingers sliding around Hinata's wrist to count the pulse of her blood. "Much of your energy was siphoned into the Star. You will take some time to recover." He shook his head then, clearly unhappy with this diagnosis. "Weeks, if not months."

"Months?" Hinata sighed, eyes still closed lest the room take to swaying with her gaze upon it. "I... I cannot take months. I am sure Sasuke can fix this." She swallowed, the thought of his blood, silver and clean, pulsing with energy and warm with the heat of his body making her insides flutter and dance.

Glancing at each other warily under the cover of Hinata's closed eyelids Anko and Kabuto frowned but said nothing.

Already half asleep despite her best intentions Hinata breathed in deeply, reaching out blindly to rub at Rasu's dark head beside her as Kabuto released her wrist.

"Where is he?" she murmured, forcing her eyes to open so she could study their faces when they answered.

Nervous now Anko looked away to tidy something that did not need tidying on the nightstand next to her bed. Kabuto cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders, a motion that looked unnatural on his bookish young frame.

"Speaking to the Worm."

* * *

Leaving her side was only possible if he spent as little time there as he could manage. First, there had been the urgent matter of the slave collars. Already they had begun to tighten as the Profane thundered in his jail cell of a pit, hissing out his demands for freedom.

The circle of leather magicked to do the foul bidding of the slave's master had dug into the skin of the women and children of the Rot. Their necks had been cascades of crimson that traveled to their collarbones. Their eyes had been scrunched with pain, their breaths short and shallow with the agony and even his approach had been unable to distract them from the panic of the noose around their jugulars.

Gathered together the women had been in a crowd in the entrance hall of the palace, as far from any entrance to the Worm's hidden jungle as they could get.

Kabuto and Sasuke had entered with determination on their faces, and only after working together had they managed to find the tangle of spells that had been worked into the leather bindings.

Once unraveled each collar was like it's own specific knot and although Kabuto could if he worked hard enough untangle the disaster that held the slave's life in the balance, Sasuke had an easier way.

With sheer force, elegant and supple like the creature that had gifted it to him, his magic danced and twirled, only too eager to slice through the tangled knots of the spells with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

It had taken time, but before the suns began their rise into the heavens the next day the pile of leather collars had collected bloody and obscene on the luminescent ground of the Scaled Worm's receiving hall.

And with each fallen collar a pair of wide stupefied eyes had searched Sasuke's face. The Rot Clan had stayed together, watching as each and every individual was freed by his pale hands, by the singing lightning of his magic. Elder and child, young or old he did not falter, his features always calm, even uninterested.

It was not until the next day, after checking on Hinata's sleeping form and making sure Anko was doing a suitable job of keeping her safe that he and Kabuto had gone back to the Dispensary where the Chattels still hung encased in the stone.

Exhausted and defeated they were limp dolls hanging as though crucified. Their bruised cheeks, their broken noses, their blood-stained teeth were pitiful in the light of Luminatus and Solatta.

Uncertainly Kabuto had suggested the purging of the Profane's blood or as much as could be done to relieve them of their addiction.

Sasuke's gaze had flickered then to the blonde, to his keen eyes and his knowing frown. Deciding not to verge further into the commentary of dependence on a star's blood the Uchiha had chosen instead to agree with the healer and the next two days had been dedicated to just that.

It had been a miserable business. Between Sasuke's shining silver blood, and the powder of some other Star's bones they had weaned the Chattel's from the ichor of old Orochimaru's body.

It ran dark inside them, it heated their hate to a fire uncontrollable, it scratched at their veins in an attempt to stay within even as Sasuke's blood, in turn, fought to defeat it.

There was no contest in the end. His was a gift without strings. It healed and rectified the broken things within them, by brute force if not gentleness.

Their bodies were a battlefield of pain and he did not linger to witness it. Instead, he left the work of bathing their feverish bodies to the women of their kin under Kabuto's instructions. It was enough that as he walked away he had to listen to their shrieks from their room, their painful supplications for the poison of the profane's blood to be gone from their bodies.

It was during those times when his anxiety got the best of him and the memory of Hinata's lingering eyes on his veins made his magic uneasy and feral that he wandered to the Worm's pit.

If he had been vile in power, as a pauper he was beyond tolerable. Through the jungle boughs and past the now frightened foliage of the woodland Sasuke listened.

Even from a distance, Orochimaru's menacing hiss sounded, bouncing off the steaming vapors of the geysers. Echoing through the trees and umbrella wide leaves of the forest.

"Filthy death craving pigs... I will tear their intestines, skin them while they breathe, pump them full of fire while their hearts beat..." Panting with the agony of never-ending pain the giant serpent coiled and uncoiled, turning in circles within the pit, stinking as bad as the wasteland beyond the palace walls. The blood from his wounded eye coagulated to a thick bubbling black much like the gurgling pools of blight on the Rot.

In the light of morning, the jungle was a neon green where the suns stretched their fingers, a darker jade where the shadows lingered cooly, hiding monstrosities that were at least for the moment too frightened of the star to show their faces.

Still, Sasuke glared at the jungle while he stood at the edge of the pit, aware that whatever watched him so intently at least had brains enough to stand down. He'd rather it remained this way.

"You." Orochimaru's hiss was wretched, the spit of his venom splashing with an acidic hiss at the wall of his pit in his attempt to reach him at the edge. "You weak nothing. Unable even to defend yourself. Relying on an infant human thing to protect you. What a humiliation it is to be of your race, you useless-"

"We are not of the same race. Rest assured." Sasuke muttered, bored as he studied his hands for a moment before crouching at the edge of the gaping hole. Pieces of glass were still razor sharp and jagged as they hung on the edges and he lingered at one of the few smooth spaces along the frame where Hinata had swung to slam when he had caught her before falling.

A couple of feet over and she would have pierced herself through with a piece of glass long as his forearm.

Trying not to think of the outcome of that scenario he looked back at the now writhing coils of serpent so far below, inconsequential with the pulsing arrow that stuck awkwardly out of his snake face.

Blind, the Profane was forced to lick and lick the air for information, nostrils flaring with ever-growing frustration as he listened. "Are you here to finish the job your insect of a slave left unfinished? Or have you come to chat some more?"

"Why would the Apostate be heading to Hell's Maw?" Sasuke finally called down firmly. "No one has bothered with the lower realm in thousands of years."

A hiss, angry and bitter rose from within the pit. "You come asking for information, child? Let me from this pit and I will tell you secrets... oh such secrets. Delicious things that would tear you apart, drive you mad, even. It would be my pleasure. Remove the arrow your filth of a slave placed within me."

"Tch." Dark gaze focused with deadly precision the dark-winged star glared. "How long I wonder does it take for a creature bent on eternal life to die alone in a pit of their own making." He murmured, mostly to himself. "I do wish I was able to find out if you succumb to the death of your body, or if your captivity drives you to desire death by you own hand."

Silence broken only by the hissing spurts of heated water spraying up from the geysers reigned. Holding still but for the slow methodical flick of his tail the Profane glared into the dark abyss of his blindness. With the pulse of Hinata's arrow glowing like a heartbeat, Orochimaru's face was lit and shadowed in intervals of monstrosity and soothing black darkness.

Sasuke paused, ignoring the brutal desire within him to slide through the air with his wings flared, his sword drawn, his aim focused on taking the snake's head from his endless neck.

"He goes to the Maw for someone, not something." Orochimaru's voice was calm and low, more like that of Lord Utterance as Sasuke had originally met him than the flailing creature left in his wake.

"Someone." Sasuke murmured, thinking back on the things the Worm had shouted to him in the dark three days past. Things that had rung with the bell tones of lies. Itachi's white wings, Danzo's continued life, a horde of warriors reliant on Itachi's blood at his beck and call.

"You would be a fool not to listen to all I can say." Orochimaru continued, cool and bargaining as though at a market sale. "Free me and I will tell you all you need to know."

There was no time to even contemplate this, in the filtered light of the jungle with the rays of sunlight coming down in wide beams that sliced through the darkness Sasuke took one and then another step from the pit, feeling his decisions more firmly within his mind with every inch.

"Lies." He murmured softly, turning to leave, suddenly unsure of why he had bothered to come in the first place. "The Profane can spout nothing but lies."

"Stop." The serpent's voice was a low menacing growl that would have risen the hair on the back of his neck once upon a time. Now he ignored it, moving decidedly back towards the exit without looking over his shoulder.

"Come back! Come back! Curse you!" Shrieks, frantic and growing with panic as they shook the jungle rippled through the world, setting insects to hiding and vermin to scuttling. " _Curse you_!"

There was only one thing that snake had spouted when he had had the upper hand that Sasuke could trust, the one thing that the lying thing could say that would have had to no consequence.

Itachi was heading to Hell's Maw.

Leaving the roaring madness of the Scaled Worm behind, Sasuke closed the door as he stepped into the hall, frowning at the Chattel's who stood waiting on the other side in complete stillness.

Their faces had grown pale, their eyes so dark had changed to a varied shade of brown, one darker than the other, one nearly hazel.

Unlike before their hair was pulled into different knots, one braided, one tightly looped at the base of her neck and the last with her dark hair free, a mane that traveled in waves around her shoulders, frizzy and wild.

Together they bowed under his scrutiny, ignoring his flaring irritation.

"Lord Star."

Ignoring them completely he walked past, aware at every moment of where they were should their loyalty suddenly prove fickle. It was a strange day to find himself wishing it was Amaterasu at his back instead. At least with the horkney, if the betrayal came he could excuse it as animal behavior.

"I have told you to stop following me." He grunted sharply, heading towards Hinata's room. "I will not say so again."

"Kabuto sends word." One of the Chattels began softly, her voice not unlike the ripped and twisted mess of before. Whatever the Worm had done to her vocal chords Sasuke's magic had been unable to heal it.

"It appears Princess Hinata has woken." One of the others added, her joy at the news tangible in her own hoarse articulation. "He is examining her now."

Determined to keep his steps from speeding at their words Sasuke nodded, allowing himself only the briefest clench of his fists at his sides before continuing.

"Fetch her something to eat and water." He threw over his shoulder before turning down another hall, if only to get rid of them on his heels.

With a bow he did not bother acknowledging the Chattels did as they were told, heading towards the kitchens where they had so blatantly mistreated the one they now owed their lives to.

Finally alone Sasuke paused in the hall, looking out the window at the wasteland through the glass, at the swirling storm that had risen in the distance and the blinding blue of the heavens above the hurricane madness of orange and red dust.

With deep breaths and a clenched jaw, he wrangled the similar storm dancing through him before continuing on towards her quarters.

 _I cannot take her to Hell's Maw._

 _I cannot._

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	16. I Know

**_Just getting into the rhythm of this thing again. It's a little bit like learning to ride a bike after a long time. I know I can do it, but the first few laps around I'm going to be a tiny bit wobbly._**

 ** _Thank you so much for my lovely reviews!_**

 ** _Although, I'm starting to think you guys might be biased hahahaha Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that._**

 ** _Much, much love_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _PS. If you are reading this on or near Tuesday chances are you are like "what the heck? why does this not make sense?" I definitely left out the first chunk. X.x and added it quickly. SO SORRY. this is what happens when I edit on no sleep._**

 ** _bad. Inky. BAD._**

* * *

The feather in his hands was a white that shone brighter in the suns light. Sharp as a knife at the bony core, soft as down at the edges it's lightness and elegance was something he had nearly forgotten in the months past.

By contrast, the darkness of his fallen feathers was a brutal thing. Heavy and cumbersome it was as much a torture device for those that incurred his wrath as to himself.

Pushed back on his list of things to yearn for his wings had been sidelined by more pressing matters. Battles and the roar of the wasteland, the blood on Hinata's lips as she drowned within her own lungs, and then the poison at his neck had distracted.

Slowly, Sasuke lifted his gaze back to Hinata's slumbering form on the bed, the light threading through the darkness of her hair and setting her still pale skin to shining like the feather he twirled absently in his hands. Too exhausted to stay awake he had arrived to find her serene as he had rarely had occasion to see her. And he could hardly blame her.

Somehow she had managed to do something he had not even tried to address, despite its importance. Letting out a sigh he glanced at Rasu splayed on the floor near the door of the room. He had taken his guard duties seriously in the days past, refusing to move from his place but to be fed and watered, returning as soon as his meal was received in the patio off the palace kitchens where the women and children of the Rot now worked at their leisure to feed themselves.

And the ones they were now calling heroes.

The knock on the door was brief, followed by the hinges creaking as Chattel after Chattel entered, heavy laden with trays crowded with dishes.

"Lord Star."

"We had to cook Amaterasu's flesh, to minimize the mess if he is to take his meal here."

"And we knew not what the Princess Hinata would be capable of eating at her waking, so we brought many options."

"And also dinner for yourself."

The girls stood in a line, arms tight on their trays as if expecting something. Straining not to growl Sasuke nodded, eyes resting on Hinata in time to see her lashes flicker and fix themselves on the Chattels as they placed their trays on the table by the fireside, moving to leave quickly in response to the Star's silence.

No sooner had the door closed than Sasuke leaned back in his chair, tucking away the white feather in a pocket of the dark tunic Anko had provided him.

Hinata peeked at him from her place on the bed, dimly aware of the rising heat to her cheeks as he stared, brow furrowed and face unreadable.

After an unbearable handful of heartbeats she sighed, closing her eyes as the realization of his anger washed over her. "...I... I know you are upset with me."

Arms crossed tightly over his chest Sasuke rose, wandering to the foot of her bed to lean against the post there, dark eyes pinched at the edges.

Slowly, Hinata dared to glance at him again, glaring at the flames that danced in the grate for a moment before inching herself slowly up.

"You should not be moving."

His voice twisted something in her chest, and the second realization, that she had not heard him in days made something uncomfortable and strange hurt deep within.

Swallowing the wince of discomfort as she adjusted herself on the mattress she heaved a breath and finally faced him, straining to keep eye contact despite her hesitation.

"I... I am not sorry."

Brows rising, Sasuke pressed his lips tightly together. "Is that so."

"Y..yes." Annoyed with the stutter, Hinata held a breath, fiddling nervously with a frayed edge on the heavy duvet thrown over her aching legs. "I... I would do it again."

Frustration simmered within him then, making his shoulders tense and his jaw ache with clenching. Still, he pressed his lips even more tightly together to keep himself from smirking.

 _So small_. She was hardly a lump in the giant expanse of the mattress. There was likely more weight in the many pillows than on her body. _So stubborn._

"All just to blackmail me into helping you on a fool's errand." It was not a question, more a weary lamentation and Hinata's frown deepened slightly.

"Blackmail." the snap was decidedly annoyed. "I asked, I did not-"

"It nearly killed you, administering those tears." Sasuke cut in swiftly, his glare as steady and unshakable as his blade. "If you think I will let myself be indebted to you-"

"Nonsense." Hinata snapped back, face flushed so that all those freckles that had been flickering through his thoughts since waking stood bright. "Breaking those slave collars, healing those Chattels... that was you. Don't deny you were eager to help-"

"You-" Sasuke began and froze as her voice rose, drowning out his hissing denial.

"And why are they calling me Princess? Tell them to stop!"

He balked, completely blindsided by the strange turn in the conversation. All thoughts of telling her of their coming separation dropped from his mind. "You are daughter of the ruling family, heiress to a land and people-"

"I am _not_ a princess." There was for the first time ever the slightest, hardly audible sound of a pout in her voice as she glared down at her hands, tiny shoulders stiff beneath her sleeping gown.

"What then, is your definition of a princess?" He could not keep the slightest twitch of his lips as he asked, walking slowly to sit at her side.

The smell of him hit her like a cool summer breeze on a hot day. Mint, and lightning, petrichor and ashes. Swallowing hard, the usually calm Hinata dug around inside herself for her frustration, lifting her gaze full of accusation to his face.

"B...by your definition... a _princess_ is _useless_."

She was tired, he could see it in the darkness beneath her eyes, in the thinness of her cheeks and the limp fall of her dark hair. But as always the pearls in her face shone bright and defiant if a little sheepish. Silently he thought, receiving the rebuke without anything to say in defense. He had implied this too often to shrug it away now.

"I am fairly sure, that no one who spends even a minute in your presence considers you useless." he moved without thinking, his hand a rebel taking no orders as he tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. "Including me, Princess."

Wide-eyed, Hinata stayed perfectly still, refusing to breathe.

The clatter of the door opening made them both jump, and Kabuto entered with Anko at his heels. "Oh, excellent. You are awake."

Smoothly, Sasuke rose and moved to the trays the Chattels had left behind, taking bits of the cooked meat they had brought for Rasu and tossing it to the suddenly alert horkney wagging his tail furiously at his master.

Blinking rapidly to clear the sudden fog that had descended on her brain Hinata turned to the blonde, trying hard to ignore the heat that was making her neck and cheeks and ears blaze as he dropped a bag on her nightstand and began removing instruments she recognized from his Dispensary.

Frowning slightly he glanced at her as he worked. "Are you well? You seem overheated."

Anko, watching with arms crossed from the other side of the room let her eyes slide to the Star now crouching to rub Rasu's head, ignoring everyone decidedly.

"I...I am fine. Just, tired." Hinata stammered, allowing Kabuto to press the metal cone to her back, listening intently to her breathing.

Feeling eyes on his back Sasuke finally lifted his gaze and froze to see Anko studying him shrewdly, lips pressed into a thin line. There was not enough wariness in her face before she turned away as if she had measured him carefully and found him somehow wanting.

* * *

 _The rain of springtime always came in fits and starts. The storms would rage in the evening and through the night. Shaking the roof of their home and making the shutters dance against the wall. He would curl up tight as a ball in his bed with his siblings and feel their frightened limbs plastered to him, their elder and protector._

 _In the morn they would see the world always awash with clarity. Sparkling with the residue of the chaotic rain and lightning it was a realm full of possibility._

 _At least, he had used to think so before he was old enough to understand that everything had a darkness to it. Nothing was ever truly just opportunity. Opportunity meant you had to take a chance, and chances meant there was the possibility of failure, of pain._

 _He learned that when he heard of the fire that had sprung in the Villa over a decade ago. He had been too young to remember. It had begun with the flash of lightning streaking through the heavens like a knife. The Villa had been the obvious choice for the storm's aim. It was the highest point in a low flat land Valley. it was topped by the metal towers and instruments from a time long past when the Hawk Eyed had studied the world and even had scholars who were students of the weather._

 _They told him that was how the Lady Hawk, mother of the heiresses and wife to the Lord Hiashi had died, eaten alive by the fire._

 _Even the Lord's powerful magic had not been sufficient to save the storehouses, barely enough to keep the damage to the Southern Pavilion._

 _"They are human." Konohamaru's father had sighed when he had told him the story, their hands deep in the soil which was less dark than the year before, less joyful._

 _"We revere them now, but once upon a time, our own family had been leaders of the Valley. We ruled because it was our land that produced the vegetables and fruits, our family's labor that fed all the mouths." He sighed deeply, leaning back a moment to straighten his tired back, sweat-soaked from rummaging in the earth on hands and knees to feel with his skin the depth of the Rot's reach into the land._

 _"But..."Konohamaru had stuttered, thinking of the pale eyes of the men and women he watched wander past the fields his family owned on the very outskirts of the Valley. They were dangerously close to the forest where the animals now paced hungry and desperate. "..their eyes- were they not blessed?"_

 _"Certainly." His father shrugged then, tapping his nose lightly with affection. "But we are all blessed, Konohamaru. One way or the other." He pressed his hand then to his young son's chest, feeling the healthy beating heart within. "You at least get to choose what you will do with your blessing. Perhaps..." he shrugged then, offering a tired wink on his worn face. "...you are more blessed even than they who have no choice in the matter."_

 _Konohamaru's grin had been wild, his little mind whirring with thoughts of blessed eyes and the soil within his hands. Distracted by his thoughts he did not see when his father straightened, catching sight of a handful of figures heading down the edges of his field slowly. Too slowly to simply be the passing wayward clumps of foragers heading into the darkness of the forest._

 _Several rows over, with a babe strapped to her back and her face half hidden by a wide-brimmed woven hat Konohamaru's mother straightened, catching wind of the tension in her husband's body instinctively._

 _"Is that...?" she began softly, rising from her place in the dirt as well. The rains had been hard the night before and the soil was soft and pliable. With spring heading towards them fast and furious, it was the right time to handle the earth. To feel how much of it was dark with nourishment and how much had succumbed to the growing Dryness within their Valley._

 _"Lord Hiashi."_

 _Konohamaru raised his head to look at his father then in surprise, jumping to his feet and raising a hand to block the sun as he squinted through the haze. At the head of the envoy, a tall broad-shouldered man walked, cloaked in the white tunic of the Hawk Eyed, the gray sash around his middle and the blood red darkness of his pants signifying his ability and willingness to take life._

 _Behind him, a handful of other adults walked in varying colors. A handful of black-clad elders like giant crows waddling through the grassy edges of the field. A young man who walked with the same slow intense look as Lord Hiashi, his sash gray and his tunic red to signify his proficiency at the Hawk Eyed art of killing._

 _Mouth dry, Konohamaru scanned his face. "The Warren."_

 _"That must be them, then." His mother whispered, walking to stand beside him, hand on his shoulder._

 _The two white-clad figures on either side of the Lord Hiashi were small. Little puffs of cotton amongst the chaos of the brown field. They walked with careful movements, and despite the youth on their faces, they surveyed the world attentively, knowingly._

 _For a moment Konohamaru felt the familiar flash of longing and envy that their pearl eyes inspired, before shaking himself roughly of the thought. His father was right, as always. It was a pity they had little choice regarding their live's calling. He, on the other hand, was free._

 _"My Lord Hiashi." Konohamaru watched his father bow, and then blinked, distracted from the men's voices by the sight of the two tiny heiresses standing right before him._

 _The elder looked closely at the ground, examining the plants that his mother had been tucking into the earth after having sprouted them amongst raw cotton balls collected from the summer snow that drifted in the hot months._

 _On the other side, the younger stood stiffly, arms laced behind her back much like The Warren who stood silent and still behind them both._

 _He frowned slightly, startled to find the younger girl's eyes trained on him, white as the tunic she wore they loomed in her pixie soft face. Her dark brown brows and long lashes framing the blessed gaze as she stared at him._

 _Feeling strangely cowed Konohamaru rummaged around inside himself for an adequate reply, and as children are wont to do he stuck his tongue out._

 _The girl's flinch was involuntary and with her jaw tightening fitfully she glared, drawing a slow triumphant smile from Konohamaru's mouth._

 _"...well, I do not want to disturb your work. Forgive the intrusion. We were surveying and I figured since you were here..." Hiashi's voice cut into Konohamaru's thoughts, drawing his attention again to the men's conversation._

 _"There is nothing to forgive, Lord Hiashi."_

 _Turning away with his back ramrod straight Hiashi paused, brow furrowing at the sight of his eldest daughter crouched near one of the miniature sprouts, head cocked to the side as she investigated its leaf pattern._

 _"Hinata." his snap was like a well-managed whip and startled the girl jumped, losing her balance only to catch herself palm flat on top of the tiny fragile vegetation._

 _Her snatched breath was as fast as her limbs snapping up as though electrified, eyes wide._

 _"Oh...Oh, forgive me- I-" she started, turning to Konohamaru's parents with wide pale eyes filling rapidly with tears._

 _Konohamaru gasped, stunned. His father and mother had alluded that the eldest of the heiresses had been born with a weak heart, with eyes that wept and blurred her sight._

 _He had not believed it._

 _"Please, forgive my offspring," Hiashi muttered, grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her around to walk back. "There is much training yet to be accomplished in this one."_

 _Without giving anyone a chance to reply he dragged his daughter away, murmuring rapidly in her ear as he went._

 _The envoy followed, as though tethered to the Lord Hawk by an invisible line. All but the smallest of the silhouettes falling into line._

 _Lingering after the others wandered further down the path, Hanabi gazed levelly at Konohamaru and his parents, making him suddenly nervous that she would disclose his improper gesture only moments before._

 _To his surprise, the girl glanced first back at the path where her father was quickly disappearing and then at the crushed and now useless sprout pressed too deeply into the soil by her elder sister's hand._

 _Wordlessly, and with hardly a bend to her small knees she lifted a hand to hover over the miniature green, eyes squinting tightly and jaw clenched as she stared._

 _"Oh...Lady Hanabi, you do not-" Konohamaru's mother began wide-eyed only to pause with the words dead on her lips as the beansprout shivered like shaking off a chill and straightened, it's leafy stem sighing back into place as healthy as before._

 _"It is good spell practice." Hanabi murmured, voice too serious for a child, too dark._

 _Wordlessly the family watched as she walked back after her family, The Warren standing patiently at the end of the row for his youngest charge._

 _"Huh." Konohamur listened as his father studied the sprout, mouth still slack with surprise. "One weeps, the other wields magic like it's as simple as breathing."_

 _"She was exhausted by that." His mother retorted. "Her brow beaded with sweat. Is she not too young?"_

 _"The other is too old for weeping. Even newborns sometimes do not weep." His father's reply was worried, and while he and his wife studied the resurrected plant before them Konohamaru watched as Hanabi glanced back once more at the very end of the row and stuck her tongue out in return._

 _His grin was instant and so wide it was nearly painful._

 _"If you ask me... it will be the younger who saves us." Turning finally back to his father Konohamaru watched as he straightened, following the troupe of Hawk Eyed with his eyes as they headed back towards the Villa where they had lived for centuries._

 _"They say The Warren has taken to calling her Little Fire. Because of the all-consuming passion of her character." A slight tone of pride usually only reserved for his own children lingered on his tongue and Konohamaru blinked rapidly at him, absorbing his words in the brightness of the early spring sun._

 _"Little Fire?" He asked softly, thinking of her glare._

 _"Mm." His father hummed, bending back down to continue working. "It would be a good omen to have a fire on our side."_

The bang of the door flinging open roused him with a dagger in one hand and a throwing knife in the other. The young man who had barged into the Shadow's sleeping quarters flinched back a step but was lucky enough to have disturbed one of the best-trained people in the Villa besides those of the Main Family themselves. Someone else might have skewered him for his rude disruption.

"K-Konohamaru, sir." He gasped, breathless. "The Lady Hanabi calls for you."

Konahamaru had already risen, grabbing a shirt to throw over his naked torso while he shoved his feet back into his soft leather boots, pushing the jittery Hawk Eyed boy out of the way as he marched out into the hall.

The Villa had been in an uproar since their arrival, and only at the orders of his Lady had he dragged himself to his bed, finding rest despite the rushing worries in his mind. He could not recall the last time he had had an actual meal or slept for longer than a handful of hours. The short nap had been necessary and now his senses felt sharp as wetted blades.

From the second floor balcony, he looked out to the courtyard where animals and people were crowding in what looked like chaos. He could recognize Hanabi's strategic evacuation of the Village, however. Women and children were being herded into the underground cellars not filled with the last of the bounty that would be collected come autumn. Pack animals wheeling blankets and furs, barrels of drinking water and the precious dried foods the villagers could not risk being ransacked by the invaders were being organized near the back of the Villa where the stables and granary of the Southern Pavilion were flung open to the cooling late summer air.

Dragonmoth lamps were being lit by stern-faced Hawk Eyed members, handed out to the more steady-handed women arriving in from the village. Beyond the wood and rock walls of the Villa, he could see the suns sinking against the black of the mountain range, bleeding itself to death for the sake of night's glory.

He stopped abruptly however, halfway through throwing the tunic over his head and causing the messenger behind him to slam into his shoulder blades when his eyes landed on the spouting black smoke rising from the Village proper.

"Curses." His whisper lashed from his mouth and with an unsteady gasp he was running, shoving past people as he struggled to clothe himself, shouting out orders for the messenger to bring him his weapons from the armory.

Dodging women and children, braying donkeys and lamenting frightened goats he wove his way to where the Villa gates were only half open, people scrambling inside with high pitched cries of panic on their voices and soot-stained faces. Babies wept as their mother's hustled through, right before the double doors were slammed closed and the timber slid across to bolt it.

Above and on either side the unused sentry towers were now teeming like an anthill with white clad Hawk Eyed heavy laden with their bows and arrows, thighs darkened by the throwing knives strapped in easy reach.

Throwing himself up the stairs Konohamaru shoved his hair out of his way, catching sight of her glaring fiercely over the wall, the only point of stillness in a myriad of moving parts. Around her the Clan moved, preparing extra quivers of arrows, hauling water to quench the unavoidable fire that their enemy would try to light at the entrance of their home. In the chaos, her stillness was a point of brightness, and he clenched his teeth to remember her small childish face, the calm with which she had gazed at him at their first meeting.

It was the same transient immobility of flame, right before it sparked and set the world to fire.

"Lady Hanabi."

His voice broke the spell and she turned away from the fires that raged at the Village grounds. Homes that had stood unshakable against winter snowstorms and summer thunder for centuries now turning to ashes tossed by wayward winds into the heavens.

Rage, as bright as superheated iron glowed from her blessed Hawk gaze.

"Konohamaru." The choked whisper of her voice betrayed little to anyone else. Even her father standing behind her with Grandelder did not turn at the sound of her subtle strain, staring into the destruction of their people's homes instead.

Konohamaru however, knew what that tone meant.

"No." He shook his head, his whisper alerting Grandelder and subtly the older man watched them.

Hanabi's rage only brightened at his word. Seething she clenched her jaw, letting out a breath through her nose like a bull before rushing. "No?"

"You are needed here. You must guide the forces. They look to you. Send me." He searched her face, looking for the glimmer of rationality among the burning embers of her fury. "I will slay them in your name. Use me."

Opening her mouth to retort sharply Hanabi paused, hearing the sudden booming echo of a drumbeat- a sound that had been missing in the Valley since music had been forsaken for the sake of survival. Besides the trilling songs of their people during gleaning and foraging, there had been no music on their land and the drum made her stiffen.

On the wall, all around her Hawk Eyed and Villager alike stilled to listen, their eyes wide, their breaths held.

The pulse droned on, growing it's frantic pace so that their hearts raced to keep up. Growling low Hanabi stepped to the wall, gripping the ancient wood of the Villa's defenses.

How many hundreds of years had the walls gone without a single battle. Nothing but the weather fought with the largely peaceful people of the Valley and now as the drum roared so too did the shadows of the invaders materialize from the ashes and smoke.

They moved awkward and loping, less human than animal. Their matted hair and painted faces grotesque. The whites of their eyes glared in the growing darkness and the flash of their bared teeth made Hanabi think sharply of the threatening gaze of half-breed demon foxes in the woodland.

The smell of them was pungent enough to be carried on the smoking breeze and gasps of disgust and terror rippled through the men and women at the gate, their hands shaking as they gripped their weapons.

Hanabi let her eyes slide to her periphery, watching as they struggle to keep fear from their faces.

These were not warriors. These were hunters, perfect stalkers and killers by need not by desire, and the creatures marching towards them looked both human and monster, terrifying and familiar. A combination of both things avoided in their form of battle.

Konohamaru let out a ragged breath, half growling as he took the bow and quiver offered to him by a breathless young man. Eyes fixed on the dozens of shadowy men approaching he slipped the weapons on his body, fiddling with the belt of his short sword absently.

"Orders, my lady."

It was not a request.

Jaw tight, Hanabi glanced at her father whose face was so tightly held, at the men on either side looking steadily more horrified at the approach of their foes.

 _Come now, Little Fire._ Neji's voice was smug with pride, despite the teasing. _Show them how to set a real flame._

"Take two dozen men." she murmured, lifting a hand, gaze fixed on the steadily growing speed of their opponents as they began a loping trot towards their gates, their spears aiming for the faces watching them approach.

"And?" Konohamaru let out a breath, watching as her hair began to dance- drawing the attention of all her people. Around them the world wavered like a heat wave and the air condensed to the thickness of water. The ponytail hanging low at her back flicked and fluttered like the tail of a hunting cat and her eyes sharpened.

"And slaughter whatever of them I leave behind."

The boom of the drum was suddenly drowned, a sound much deeper in nature echoed through the ribcage of all as her magic roared vicious and vindictive. Stone, thick as tree trunks punched through the compact earth of the path dotted with invaders and their cries of surprise were marred with pain as the boulders jammed into their bodies, brutal and unforgiving.

Konohamaru smirked, withholding all awe from his face as he hoisted himself up onto the wall ledge, looking down at the thirty-foot drop calmly.

"Archers!"

Hearts now pounding, infected with their heiresses' bloodlust the clan rushed forward, following the Shadow's example without hesitation.

"For our glory!"

Their jumps were fearless, clothing fluttering in the breeze of their fall even as the ground tore and shredded itself like a dozen angry mouths to chew on the Rot clan's first wave.

"And for those of the Hawk Eyed Clan." Hanabi's whisper replied, sweat beading on her forehead running down her face in place of tears as she watched the one most dear to her head straight into the fray of possible death.

* * *

Despite his best intentions to avoid the thought, the Worm's words had festered. The geysers hissed at him in the black of the jungle darkness.

The smears of the worm's path through the soft ground showed a scarring map of their battle that he studied with face placid as an undisturbed pond.

There, he had been thrown to land at Hinata's feet. There, she had pulled back her bow with eyes glowing white as the moon, and just as fierce as the people who lived upon it. Her magic had been a vibrant star shining in a black void, the hiss of the arrow as piercing as the screech of the Hawk from which her Clan had gained it's name.

Carefully he stepped past the heated clouds of water leaving foggy tendrils through the black and to the edge of the pit again, fingers twitching with anticipation.

The hole gaped wide and ominous as a throat ready to swallow. Beneath, hidden by the layers of shadows the slithering monstrosity of the worm was a tongue too short to escape.

Hissing softly as he tasted the air the Profane rumbled his discontent.

"Here again, are you? What now? Come to beg for more tidbits?"

Slowly his hooded serpentine head lifted and the glow of Hinata's arrow lit it's still blood smeared mess where the two eyes had been gouged.

Plucking the magic from the air was easy, it still surprised him how easy. He had grown used to the struggle, to the strain of dragging the electricity to his hands, the power to his fingers. Now, it was as simple as opening his wings wide, as comfortable as drawing a deep breath to sprint.

The flicker of sparks was lost on the blind Profane but the sudden suck of air from his lungs was not. Suddenly still, his tongue flicked rapidly, listening as the chirp and scream of the lightning in Sasuke's hand solidified into the glowing katana he preferred.

"No. Begging is not something I am keen on doing."

"Only a fool would pass up all I can tell. Are not the Uchiha's a wise bloodline? Has the intellect been lost through the generations?" Panic was starting to slither into the darkening tone of the Worm's voice and something about it had Sasuke's thin-lipped smirk rising.

"The bloodlust has grown, vile one." His wings flared then, their sharpness cutting the air as the edge of his blade sang. "It is time to end you."

"Wait!" The shriek had no semblance of calm, or dignity. Flattening against the curved wall of his jail the Worm thrashed as though pinned. "T-the slaves!"

"I have no need of slaves."

"But you cared enough to shatter my collars? To give them their freedom?" He was panting now, and had he been in his humanoid form sweat would have glistened on his upper lip, stinking strongly of his terror.

Feeling the coiling pressure of an oncoming kill Sasuke ignored him, closing his eyes to sharpen the edge of the blade in his hands.

He dropped silent, wings tightening to his body as the ground rushed to meet him, bubbling with the stinking scaled body of his soon to be victim.

"No!" Orochimaru's voice tightened to choking, cut off by the force of Sasuke's body slamming to his throat, pinning the enormity of the creature to the wall with the pounding fury of his magic so the stone cracked in a spider web behind him.

The serpent gasped, choking as Sasuke's knee dug into its thick throat, both arms rising high with his blade. His deep breath was acrid on his tongue with the smell of the Profane's rotting flesh and old blood. It truly was an obscenity, a mistake needing to be rectified.

Eyes flickering red he slammed the blade down.

"The palace will crumble!"

Blood black as the Rot's bubbling pools on the wasteland dribbled in pus thick torrents from the wound, marring the shining white of the Star's sword. The stench was almost unbearable and stung the eyes as Sasuke glared.

Threaded at the edge of the Profane's neck his blade had missed major arteries by inches, a twist of his hilt would sever his spine, but for now it was a bad flesh wound. Courtesy of his rapid tongue.

"I suggest you speak quickly. The stench of you alone is reason enough for me to be done this task."

The heated huff of air released by the frozen serpent was as pungent as the blood and Sasuke snarled, tightening his grip on the hilt and earning a hissed curse from the pinned Worm.

"I am no fool. By comparison, you are an infant. Slay me, if you dare but this palace and all the life it supports will crumble. I did not choose to live at the edge of the waste for nothing. Anyone aiming to usurp my power by slaying me would find themselves isolated in the wasteland, with nothing but rubble." His hiss was bitter as well as pained. "How I wonder will you darling slave girl recover if the rot sweeps you all up in a sandstorm with no cover? Nothing but the crumbled piles of this destroyed place to hide in?"

"After I end you we will leave this place."

The laugh was choked and the tongue that slithered from between Orochimaru's fangs was coated in the darkness of his blood. "I had you. You were just at my fingertips. I could feel you succumbing to my poison, thrashing less and less with each heartbeat within my mind." He panted softly, tongue flicking rhythmically as he thought. "Such lovely thrashing."

Jiggling the blade stopped his reminiscing instantly and Sasuke clenched his teeth to contain the urge to take his head off in one clean sweep. Furious, he pressed harder into his throat with his knees.

Strangled now and teeth coated black as his tongue the profane gasped. "I felt the push of something fighting me. Something...soft. There is only one thing to fight _my_ poison and only one who would be so interested in your welfare to use it. How did you manage to instill her loyalty?"

Wrestling to keep his surprise and anger in check Sasuke stepped back, snatching the blade back as the snake screamed and crumbled onto its side, laughing wetly through his blood.

"Are you seducing her, young star? Beauty that she is, I would not be surprised. She would be _delectable._ "

He could not have seen it coming but Sasuke cared not for fairness in that moment. The blade slammed hard through the same clotted wound on the snake's eye that he had pierced days before and the snake's scream thundered through the jungle, echoing up into the cavernous top of the mountain within which it hid.

Thrashing wildly now, it's endless coils twisting and turning he shrieked, laughing and agonizing at once.

"Or is it the blood in your veins that you feed her?! Have you enslaved her to the flavor of your silver? Have you weakened her resolve with the ichor? How are we different, Little Star? We are the ruling race, the proper masters of this world, I commend you-"

Flattening his palm hard to the top of the snake's head Sasuke growled, magic exploding in a burst of power that sent a hurricane outward, splaying the wreckage of the Worm's hoard in all directions.

The magical blow silenced him instantly, knocking all sense somewhere deep inside him so that unconscious he lay as though dead.

As the confetti of coins, jewels, and debris of his hoard showered around him Sasuke scowled. Flaring his wings, he pushed hard out of the pit to land on the destroyed clearing ground.

To his surprise Anko stood in the ribbons of steam from the geysers, her hand on her sword and her brow furrowed.

She had spoken a handful of words at most to him since his waking. It was how he preferred to keep their acquaintance but even as he tucked his wings deep inside him, screeching like nails on a chalkboard he could see the rant building in her throat.

"Well." He snapped, stalking past her to head out, furious at being outmaneuvered by the scum in the pit behind him. "Spit it out before it chokes you."

"She does not know, does she." It was not a question, her tone sharp where he rather thought it should be careful.

"I do not read minds. If you plan on speaking in riddles-"

"Hinata does not know that your blood could be her bane."

"It would be difficult to argue that point as it has kept her breathing on more than one occasion." Sasuke snapped, stopping abruptly to face the woman, eyes dark.

"I heard what the Worm said. Its blood is what drove the Chattels to madness. When they arrived they were normal, his blood changed them, enslaved them to his will. Now they do not even remember their names." Anko stood her ground despite the twist of fear that wrankled through her innards as he glowered. From the frying pan to the fire she was, it seemed, always facing off with a creature from the heavens.

At least, however... this one seemed more bitter and wounded. Less insane.

If only a little.

"The Worm is a Profane. His existence is a blasphemy." Sasuke snarled. "We are _not_ the same."

"Tell me that the ichor is not addicting," Anko whispered, her hand tight on the hilt of the sword hanging at her hip always. Although, what good it would do against him she could not guess.

Jaw tight, Sasuke glared for a moment longer before straightening, face smoothing to calmness that was more unnerving than his irritation. For a few breaths, there was nothing but silence and Anko scowled.

"I knew it. Kabuto was right."

"This is none of your concern." Without so much as a backward glance, Sasuke moved to leave, pausing abruptly at her next words.

"I will not tell her."

With her eyes boring a hole into his back Anko let out a breath, hands flexing nervously at her side. "She saved you because she _wanted_ to. I saw it. I...I don't know how the ichor works, but if dependence is its result she deserves to know."

As wordless as before he left, not bothering to even look back at her as she called out. "You owe her at least that."

 _No._ Sasuke prowled out into the palace corridor, already listing in his head the things he would need to gather to leave.

 _She deserves to be free of me altogether._

* * *

"Daughter." Hiashi's voice feathered on her ear at her side and she didn't bother flinching as his staff slammed home to cut off a spear with her name on it.

Hands raised to manipulate the stones, sweat trailing down the sides of her face the heiress swallowed hard. Not breaking eye contact with the chaos of the fight at the Villa gates had her white-knuckled and silent.

"I see it." Hanabi snarled, her body tightening until she was nothing but curled apprehension. The invaders were falling. Their bodies pierced with Hawk arrows and left already stinking like carcasses as Konohamaru and his brood waged forward.

Their prowess was painfully matched, spears were aimed with precision and from her vantage point Hanabi could see their filth covered bodies twisting expertly out of the deadly reach of rapidly released arrows well aimed by gifted Hawk Eyes.

Still, they had been holding them back, framed by the flaming inferno of the village in the background and the glittering cinders through the smoke.

That was until the song began to weave through the fray. At first, Hanabi did not hear it, too focused on ripping a gaping hole at Konohamaru's feet to divide him from the onslaught of spear-wielding savages rushing towards him and a trio of her people backed up against the gates.

"Daughter!" Hiashi snapped more loudly then. They fell. Like the puppet strings had been cut above them. In a heap, her people crumbled, one after the other, more and more rapidly as the song filtered through the chaos and touched gently on their ears.

"The music." Hanabi gasped. Beside her Hiashi's large hands slammed together in a clap that exploded with magic of his own and the shield bloomed to life, expanding wide with an elegance and speed only matched by The Warren's own skills.

"You must shield the villagers, they- Hanabi!" Stunned, Hiashi watched as his daughter threw herself onto the wall ledge, face pinched tight as Konohamaru so far below swayed, bow dropping from his hands while the enemy advanced, ghoulish and deadly on easy prey.

His hands grabbed at her tunic and she spun, the wildness in her gaze making him flinch though he didn't let go. "You forget your duty, child! Your people-"

"Somewhere below the piper comes. I will rip out his throat." Roughly she ripped the tunic from her father's hand, turning back to jump only to stop at her Grandfather's soft call.

"Little Fire."

Shaking with impatience, she glanced back, aware that below Konohamaru was collapsing.

"Burn bright." There was a knowingness in his eyes that made her throat tighten, a glance from his ancient face at Konohamaru's vulnerable body splayed on the dirt communicating understand that tangled her intestines within her.

There was no time for more words, tightening the coils of magic in the air around her she jumped, buffering her landing, feeling the fall like the pulling of a carpet from beneath her feet.

Heart in her throat she slammed home, shattering the earth on impact and sending the burst of power out to knock the fiends off their feet, staggering under the force.

The flowering of her shield rose not like a bubble but the sudden explosion of glass materializing, enclosing herself as well as Konohamaru in its safety. The spears that flew to land upon her bounced from its slick surface, earning barely a wince from her as she crouched over her shadow.

Dazed and fighting the spell of the melody now that it was cut off from him Konohamaru grunted, focusing with some difficulty on his Opaque's face. "No- you should be behind the wall- where it's safe."

"Silence." Hanabi snarled, dragging him to a sitting position only to flinch at the sudden swing of a bone spear crashing onto the shield. Obstinately she growled, watching as the shield exploded with the snowflake pattern of cracks.

"Hanabi, curses. I am fine, get back to the-"

"There are people trying to slit our throats- the moment I have gutted them all you can quarrel with me at your leisure, for now, however. Shut. Up." Her growl was punctuated by the painful tug of her pulling him to his feet, making him wince. Eyes focused over her shoulder at the sight of their attackers backing away he froze. They were looking not at them but the figure that appeared at the hill's crest.

Shadowed by the flames of the village behind her, the woman's shape was obvious. As was the flute that she now held at her side.

"There." He growled, grabbing his bow.

Following his gaze, Hanabi stood, chin raised as she locked eyes with the woman whose voice she had heard snapping orders at the invading Clan within the cover of the woods.

"Always the Hawk Eyed hide. Behind shields, behind walls, mountains..." the woman shouted, spitting her hatred across the wide expanse of shattered earth. "...stars."

Hanabi's gaze flared white as the full moon on a cloudless night, shining and deadly. "What did you just say?"

"You all look alike." Tayuya turned her head to spit a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground. "All of you, selfish cowards."

"She's seen your family," Konohamaru whispered, pushing himself slowly to his feet, eyes snapping from foe to foe as he counted, shoulders tense and poised to move.

"Yes," Hanabi whispered softly, hand reaching back to grip the hilts of her elbow blades sheathed between her shoulders.

"What do you want?" her shout was hoarse with emotion she could not control, the hiss of her weapons unsheathing harmonizing with her anxiety. "Why are you here?"

"To see you all dead, as your kind has seen to our people." The woman's smile was just a row of bloodstained teeth lacking all joy. Hanabi scowled back fiercely.

"You have come bearing war to the wrong Clan. Do you not know who we are? What we do?" The shield released with a breathy sigh that ruffled her hair and she marched forward, twirling the elbow blade in her right hand in humming windmills.

Behind her Konohamaru raised his bow, arrow steady though none of the invaders moved to intervene, watching instead as the two women faced off.

"We know all about your kind." Tayuya's leer made a face that might have been beautiful beneath the smears of Rot and old blood grotesque.

"What a mistake you have made." Hanabi sighed, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she settled into fighting stance, both blades glinting as sharp as her eyes. "Were it true that you knew my Clan, you would not have come to your death here."

"I am Tayuya of the Rot Clan." The woman cocked her head sardonically at Hanabi as she slammed a fist to her chest hard enough for plumes of red rot dust to rise from her clothing. "And I can promise you, the words you have spoken will haunt you as you die today."

"Only fools make promises they cannot keep, Tayuya." Hanabi hissed, her blade spinning expertly in her hands singing as her body coiled tightly with anticipation.

Teeth bared Tayuya twirled the flute, and as the wind tossed plumes of ashes and smoke to twist around the wildness of her hair she pointed at Hanabi deftly.

They snapped like beings on rubber bands, ignoring the flash of her teeth in a grimacing smile. Spears raised, and sharpened ivory daggers unsheathed they came on her in a wave, stinking and many-limbed.

The thunk of an arrow into chest cavities echoed out as Hanabi slit through the first of her opponents, flinging a half shield at her back to repel the handful rushing to backstab.

The ribbon of blood exploded in a wild arch and she watched each crimson droplet rise against the black of the smoky sky for a moment, feeling the way her heart and breath seemed to slow time.

This was why she had been born.

With the filling of her lungs, she exploded.

The elbow blades spun, ripping a throat as she ducked the swing of a spear, slamming her arm up to shatter the wood of the staff with the solidity of her blade. The splinters erupted high and as the man stumbled forward she twisted her blade, running him through and sending his bleeding body over her shoulder at his comrades.

Another thunk echoed, registered in her brain as Konohamaru's relentless arrows flew. Her gaze swept over the incoming kick of a leg and raising both blades up like a shield she absorbed the blow, twisting her weapons as she pulled away and hearing a satisfactory scream as she sliced the tendons of the limb from knee to ankle.

The snatch of a spearhead tearing her side was a blaze hardly noticed. Her body itself was on fire, adrenaline coursing through her at high speeds leaving no room for pain. Her growl in response was more of irritation and twisting towards the wielder of the offending weapon she slammed her leg back in a kick that shattered ribs, the grunt from her enemy thick with blood and vomit.

Something nagged at her then, as she felt the familiar heat of Konohamaru's back against hers, staring down the Rot who circled them warily now, stepping over the mutilated corpses of their brethren.

"You people are dying." Hanabi hissed, watching as Tayuya standing back from the battle spat another mouthful of blood at the ground. "What disease ails you that you would spend your last days slaying a Clan that has no quarrel with you?"

"No quarrel?" Tayuya snorted, moving forward, hand at her back where a dagger lay sheathed. "One of you white eyed filth destroyed our last chance at survival. We, who deserved the blood of the star, are now enslaved to a monster or as you so aptly noted," she spat again at Hanabi's feet. ", dying."

Breath shallow, Hanabi lowered her blades. "You fought my sister. She still travels with the star?"

"I pray that someone else takes the heart from her chest as I was unable." Tayuya's smirk creased the dry Rot on her face. "Plenty will want it. She cannot fight them all. But you would know all about the desire for stars, wouldn't you? The last keepers of angel bone."

Eyes wide, Hanabi stared. "You want our angel bone?"

"And your blood to water the earth."

Like a cat with tail lashing Tayuya launched, from calm and coy to snarling. Hanabi grunted hard as the dagger in her hand sparked hot against her crossed blades.

Blood heating to boiling Hanabi growled, hair flinging out in a hiss of magic that rippled out and snapped with electricity. " _Enough_."

Twisting hard she sent Tayuya stumbling, dagger raised to block her spinning elbow blades. Rot Clan launched at her, stunned in intervals by Konohamaru's rapid bow, and those he did not slay on impact Hanabi sliced through, easy as butter left in the sun, twisting out of the path of their falling bodies in pursuit of Tayuya's fumbling defense.

"You come to my home." Hanabi's hiss was mostly for herself, ground between teeth clenching hard enough to hurt as she spun, impaling a body behind her and twirling her blades to rid them of the blood, her steps determined and calm towards the woman now flinching from her approach.

"You threaten my people."

The earth cracked again with her steps, shattering in dark elegant ribbons, reaching for her victim.

"You burn our village. You insult my bloodline."

There was no more sass to be found on Tayuya's face. The ground was shaking beneath her feet, crumbling and shifting in ripples as Hanabi continued to prowl forward. Behind her bodies lay moaning towards death or motionless. Only Konohamaru stood, breathless and stunned.

"You must die." Hanabi lifted her blades, hair dancing in the magic storm of her own making, the ripping fissures sending Tayuya stumbling back and off her feet with a grunt.

Fear and hesitation flickered on her dirty face for a moment and the soft curse that escaped her made Hanabi pause, coiled to slash her throat open, to prove her a fool making idiotic promises.

"Come on, Kidomaru you bastard! Come on!"

Holding still, Hanabi stared at her opponent crawling backward away from her as the earth shuddered and danced beneath her.

 _Kidomaru?_ Whirling around Hanabi searched first for Konohamaru, seeing him safe and still behind her, her gaze snapping to the Villa and freezing, the color draining from her face at the sight of her Father.

Back turned away from the battle where his youngest child struggled, he and everyone else stared at the flames rising, from within the Villa.

"We do know your clan, don't you see?" Tayuya hissed smugly at the sight of the fire and smoke. "Your arrogance has cost you everything."

The screams began from within the walls of wood and stone containing all that Hanabi was meant to protect, where the rabid monster of flame now wrecked havoc with impunity.

The roar that tore from Hanabi's throat was primal, sudden as the tear of a hair from a scalp she sprung and they slammed into the shredded earth and stone. Tayuya struggled hard against the blade Hanabi pushed forcefully towards her throat, panting and groaning with the strain.

A kick to the gut sent the heiress flying backward and Konohamaru rushed forward, pulling her to her feet as more Rot clan appeared over the crest of the hill, spears shining in the dancing flames light. They were led by a dark haired, brown skinned young man whose sneer glinted white against his dirty skin.

Beside him the confusing shape of a double-headed, pale-haired human drew a gasp from Hanabi, scrambling to her feet beside Konohamaru.

"Too many." Konohamaru whispered, his arm tight around her waist and she looked back over her shoulder at the flames, at the Villa gates that would open to spill women and children for the ready spears waiting.

"So busy defending the front." One conjoined twin tsked, shrugging all four shoulders. "Kidomaru played you Hawk Eyed well."

"Easy win." The dark-haired Kidomaru drawled. "Their moves were predictable." Arms crossed he grinned. " _Honor_ required they think we would fight head-on."

"I wonder." Tayuya laughed coarsely, joining her people. "What foolish promises have you made to your burning villagers, white-eyed witch?"

He could feel her shaking against him, heard the clatter of her elbow blades as she dropped her weapons despite the panicked cries from within the Villa.

"K...Konohamaru." Fingers trembling Hanabi pulled, wrapping her arms around his neck and to his terror pressed her lips to his cheek.

"I...I have to put out the fire." Voice hoarse and hardly a whisper, her breath left heat across the side of his face, making him close his eyes.

"Yes." His nod was firm, his grip shaky.

"I...I can't...I can't fight them and save the Villa..."

"Put out the fire. I am here. I will protect you." Pressing his forehead to hers hard he stared, breathing in her exhale.

"Konohamaru." He would die. There were too many, and drained of magic she would be as useless as a lamb.

He smiled, and for a moment she remembered. A little boy with a dirt-smeared face on a wide field. His puzzled look, the churlish flash of his pink tongue. "Hanabi. The only fire allowed to burn in the Villa of the Hawk Eyed is you."

Kidomaru grunted in disgust. "Enough. Kill them both."

Turning instinctively to defend his Opaque, Konohamaru's blade whined as it slipped from his sheath. With Hanabi's back pressed to him, swirling with the last dregs of her magic he tore forward, jaw set.

Trusting him to keep her safe Hanabi faced the fire, hands splayed open to the earth below where the underwater rivers dwelled that fed the hot springs and wells. As the water rushed up, turning the earth to mud and then flooding high in twin ribbons of cerulean blue she closed her eyes.

And she listened as her Shadow died.

* * *

The Chattels had told him that she asked to see him, and his irritable response had sent them scurrying.

The blonde, Kabuto had commented that she wondered where he was and Sasuke had replied by pressing a blade to his wrist, letting him drain the silver from his body to feed the Chattels one final dose of the healing he could bring against the poison of the Profane's experiments.

Anymore and perhaps Anko would be claiming he was trying to make mindless puppets of them all.

It was a simple thing gathering all the supplies he would need. In the stores and armory weapons hung in carefully maintained piles that made him think the women of the Rot Clan had had no intention of staying despite the slave collars.

In the kitchens, his request for a water skin and a traveling cloak had been met with curious glances but ready acquiesce for his requests.

In the end, he had waited out the daylight in the stone maze of the Worm's trophy room. Prowling through the Gallery disturbing objects covered in dust from centuries of sleep. Studying with a frown the strangeness of blinking eyes jarred and sealed with wax, distracted from the constant pull to a certain soft-voiced being by the incredulity of the blooming flower that died and was reborn every few heartbeats.

The palace quieted around him as the sun began to set. Animals were taken in from pasture, the women and children began to ready for bed. The evening meal was cleared and the Chattels did not find him or if they did chose not to disturb him.

Looking up through the skylights that lit each crossroads through the grid of the Gallery he watched as navy bled across the sky, the smattering of stars above making him remember the freckles on Hinata's face once more.

The moon was high when he stepped into the corridor and began his passage towards the entrance. The Chattels would be prowling as they always were, more like guard dogs than even Rasu. They had taken to watching not just the doors leading to the jungle, as though the Profane would pop from them like a jack in the box from hell but also the wasteland. He had not considered that he might somehow call for aid until Kabuto had mentioned their reasoning.

Remembering the panicked words of the Worm at his hands however he shrugged the notion as the frightened anxieties of traumatized slaves. Who would come to the Worm's aid? What kind of allies did a creature as vulgar and selfish he have at his disposal?

Kabuto had agreed and with that Sasuke had made his decision to leave. Here, at the edges of the wasteland, under the care of those who felt indebted to her Hinata would be safe.

His steps were calm even if inside him something festered. Across the shining floor of the entryway, he stalked, remembering the panicked look on Hinata's face as she was dragged away from him on their first night in the Worm's domain.

He had forgotten, but the memory came back as he opened the door and took stock of the shining marble steps glowing by the light of the moon, the wind humming off the waste tangled with the perfume of the gardens and fountains.

At the edge of the plain, with the thirst and near death still clinging to her lips she had looked at him, unashamed to meet his eye.

 _"You are going to have to trust me."_

 _"I...I already trust you."_

Letting out a breath he had not realized he was holding he closed the door, glancing back at the darkened corridors stretching far back into the palace, following the shadows in his mind towards the door which hid her and Rasu fast asleep.

He was standing there, at the threshold before he really knew what he was doing. Hand hovering over the handle he sighed, hearing the rustle of Rasu's body shifting and knowing he would growl if he didn't make himself known Sasuke stepped through, silent as the breezes through the lemongrass.

In the dark, the room felt eerie and wide. The bed, although enormous was swallowed in the high ceilings, and with the fire dead in its stone cradle the rock floor seeped the warmth right from the air.

Rasu had indeed woken and at the sight of Sasuke rose, tail wagging and tongue out in welcome only to cock his head at the furtive shake of Sasuke's head.

Ignoring the drawn curtains on the bed frame Sasuke crouched, placing a hand on the creature's dark head, studying the gold of his eyes and the curious expression too intelligent on his face.

"You proved yourself, in the end." He whispered, rubbing behind his ear idly. "Watch over her."

Rasu cocked his head confusedly the other way, watching as Sasuke stood and moved to leave, hand on the doorknob only to freeze at the sound of metal on metal hissing.

"Do not throw that knife." Sasuke snapped, unsure of what to name the feeling that sparked to life inside him. Amusement? Anxiety? Unfamiliar sensations, too complex to name. Roughly he shoved them under. Hinata's sigh was followed by the shift of her covers and as he turned he caught the glint of the blade as she lowered it to her lap. "Sasuke? What are you-?" she paused, taking in the cloak and his unreadable expression.

Clearly taken aback she let out a sound, worse than any rebuke in its softness.

"Go back to sleep."

Ignoring him she threw back the covers, struggling to the edge of the bed stiffly to stand.

"Hinata, don't."

"You said you would help me."

There was no hesitation or stutter in her voice and for that alone, he knew there would be no avoiding the conversation. Frozen by the door he studied her swaying on her feet, the white gown that she had been wearing as she tried desperately to sleep some of her lost energy back into her limbs hung limply to pool at the floor, hiding her bare toes.

Impassive but for the tightness in his chest he studied her, as calm as if discussing the weather.

"I will do as I promised. I do not require your presence to attempt saving this mess of a realm."

Her flinch had her grabbing at the bedpost for balance, fingers white against the darkness of the wood and his gaze snagged there on those fingers, memorizing each curve.

"Please, do not leave me behind." Softly she breathed the words, drawing his attention from her trembling hands to the full lips finally pink after so many days of paleness. In the dim glow of the moon he could not see the freckles that had been haunting him, and for a moment he had to focus on not stepping forward for a better look.

Trying to convince his feet they were roots he looked away. "You would be a burden."

Stillness took over her breathless chest and blinking rapidly she swallowed. "G...gift me your blood. Let me heal so I may join you."

His eyes snapped to her without thought, and they gazed back and forth as he digested her request. She had never asked for the silver blood in his veins, not since her and her sister's defeat at his hands. But he watched now as her eyes drifted from his face to his side at his wrist where the blood now rushed more quickly with his pulse at the thought of her mouth on his skin.

Yearning, visible as she bit her lip flashed a flicker of lightning through his stomach and coldly as he could he glared.

"To heal you on the blood you fueled with your energy would be a mistake. Magic does not work that way. Your body would reject it." It was a theory, easily proved either way but the excuse at least had a tinge of truth to it. Enough that when she looked away, hiding behind her hair he was satisfied she believed it.

He could smell the tears, salty-sweet and familiar as they pooled on her lashes and to save himself he turned to leave.

"I..I know what it is like, to be a burden."

Tethered by the doorknob in his hand he waited, ignoring Rasu's low rumble by the window.

"I have been one all my life. To my village, my Clan, my brother and sister, my father." She swallowed, and Sasuke frowned at this, unsure if he could believe it.

"I know I am not a burden when I am with you." Her eyes lifted then, pale pearls swimming in tears he could feel himself craving. "I _know_ I am not."

He watched as the star water drifted down her cheek, tantalizing in it's path to her mouth.

Rasu tensed, sudden as a sharply pulled bowstring and together they turned to the horkney whose ears were raised to listen, body poised and ready.

"Hinata!" Anko's voice echoed from the corridor, Kabutomurmuring urgently words they could not hear clearly.

Confused Hinata wiped at her face roughly, unsure of what to do with herself as Sasuke stepped to her side right before the door was flung open. Kabuto, Anko and the three Chattels spilled breathless into the room. Their faces glowed with the candlelight in their hands.

Kabuto barely glanced at either of them, storming past to the window to fling it open into the gusting evening wind of the wasteland.

Anko looked sharply at Sasuke, taking in the cloak on his shoulders and Hinata's still wet lashes, though her mouth remained tightly shut.

"What is happening?" Lowering herself to sit on the bed Hinata followed Kabuto with her eyes, refusing to look at the magnetic heat of Sasuke standing beside her.

"We were out on patrol." One Chattel murmured, eyes fixed on Hinata's face with something like nerves. "We check the perimeters and look from the viewing tower for anyone approaching. It is how we knew of your imminent arrival with Lord star."

"We caught sight of something heading this way. It is moving quickly." Another of the girls continued, her dark eyes lowered.

"Too quickly. It will be here by sunrise." The last finished.

From the window Kabuto squinted into the dark, shaking his head. "I cannot make out anything, but Hinata..." He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "You could see it, no?"

Anko was there in a moment, arm extended to help Hinata to the window. Gripping the window frame tightly she frowned into the dark, searching the barren wildness of the waste and feeling the tightness of her stomach at the memory of the horrors it held.

Back and forth her gaze searched, brow furrowed in concentration until the plume of red dust became visible on the flatness of the plain.

"There." Gazing intently she breathed in, feeling the strain of her eyes focusing enough that her hand clenched Anko's tightly.

By the moon's weak light their shapes became more distinct amidst the chaos of the dust they lifted with their rapid steps. With each passing breath, she made out the length of a heavy wide blade, the sharp slice of a scythe, the muscular shoulders of monstrous men.

"Two men. Armed." Hinata whispered, her eyes distant. "Moving much faster than I thought men could."

THe hiss of the Chattels discontent drew her to look, though she paused at the sight of Sasuke still standing back, face pensive.

"Did the monster call for help?" Anko muttered, urging Hinata back to the bed. "How would he have sent out a message?"

"Or it's someone coming to ask for a boon." Kabuto put in, arms crossed as he thought. "Not a much better situation."

"No." Anko agreed, as she settled Hinata back in bed. "Either way, they will want Hinata."

"We will slay them on sight." The Chattels chorused together. From her place on the bed HInata gaped, stunned.

"What- no...I-"

"She is what the Profane most desires at the moment, to be free from the arrow." Kabuto frowned as he thought, one thumb pressed to his bottom lip lightly. "So to trade her for a boon would make sense."

"You have to go." Anko put in finally, looking not at Hinata but Sasuke. "She is in no condition to do battle- the damage to the palace and possibly the lives of the Rot Clan," she turned to the Chattels who bristled at her gaze. "Everyone will be safer. You can disappear into the wilderness."

"But... but if they come to help the Worm be freed-" Hinata began to protest.

"There is plenty to bribe them with." Anko continued firmly. "This is the only way. You need to go, and quickly. I have an idea." Turning to Kabuto, the blonde nodded. "Yes. I know."

"How?" Sasuke's first comment made Hinata look down at her hands, fists clenched tightly.

"Kabuto and I planned to escape, before the Rot Clan showed and the Profane began experimenting. We gathered supplies..." Anko swallowed thickly, holding Kabuto's gaze. "We have been planning for years."

Without breaking eye contact Kabuto nodded again. "Beneath the mountain, the geysers are fed by an underground river. Long ago a people must have used it to navigate this territory. There were small vessels, in disrepair but... we had the time. Following the route through the caverns will take you beneath the mountain range to the other side. We planned to go just far enough North to get lost in the wilderness." he sighed. "Even if Hell's Maw is said to be there, it could not be worse than here."

"How long until we can leave?" Sasuke was already moving towards the door, brow furrowed. One snap of his fingers had Rasu at his heels.

Kabuto and Anko blinked after him, still neither as surprised as Hinata by his agreement.

"Within the hour, I gather." Anko finally replied to the impatient look he threw over his shoulder.

"Get Hinata ready to leave. Kabuto, show me the vessel."

"We will gather provisions for the journey, Lord Star." The Chattels rushed out the door despite his lack of response and Kabuto disappeared after a conflicted look at Anko.

Holding herself perfectly still Hinata stared after them all, aware of Anko's watchful eyes on her features.

"I do not envy the responsibility on your shoulders, Hinata." she murmured finally, moving to the wardrobe to pull out clothing for her.

"R...responsibility?" Tearing her eyes from the empty door way Hinata finally turned to her, blinking away her daze.

"Yes." Anko muttered, moving to help her out of her sleeping gown and into the darkness of a black tunic trimmed in a patchwork of twinkling silver stars. "The responsibility of knowing you have sway over the star tasked to end us all."

In the silence that followed she paused, surprised to find Hinata sitting perfectly still and staring out the window to where the rot plains blew eerily with wind like sandpaper, remembering if only faintly the feel of it rattling through her lungs, tearing her throat, filling her mouth with blood.

"It might seem that I have sway." Softly she picked up the tunic and leggings offered in her still trembling hands. "But the truth is, I know he does not want to destroy. He just has no reason to save."

Anko said no more, finding instead boots, and changes of clothes to pack with other essentials for the road.

Still, the thought was ringing through her head like a bell, too true not to resonate.

 _Until now._

* * *

 ** _TBC_**


	17. Enough

She woke with the taste of the nightmare still bitter on her tongue like a mouthful of ashes or rusted nails.

Above the smooth wood of the rafters in her room glinted with the strange gray hue of light only a storm can encourage from the sky.

Distantly the nightmare solidified in her mind so that the world began to crack, or perhaps it was not the world that shattered but her heart.

 _"Hanabi!"_

 _Father's frantic scream, the sound of arrows flying, the sound of ribs shattering, the voices of a dozen men dying, friend or foe the gasps of pain were the same._

 _Above it all the hiss of the river bending reluctantly to her will roared like a waterfall, the fine mist covering her face, condensing to dew on her lashes where she might have had tears if she had been a different girl in a different time._

The door opened with the soft slide of wood on smooth tracks and she did not bother to look at who entered, her pale gaze glimmering under the strange half light of the suns as she absorbed the disaster that was her life.

 _Tayuya and Kidomaru, their voices had been scathing as they baited him, her faithful shadow. Metal on metal rang as their blades collided and even with eyes closed and with the magic pouring out of her in payment for the rivers help she could hear his skill. The sound of his steps had the rhythm of a dance, the breath in his lungs was hushed and controlled. Until an enemy blade slid into him where it should never have been._

Steps moved slowly, and the entity that had entered her chamber settled slowly onto their knees at the side of her sleeping mat, breath slow and careful with anticipation. Hanabi could not understand what they anticipated. There was nothing to hope for.

 _The crash of his body into hers sent them both crumbling, the blade in Tayuya's hands familiar because it was Hanabi's own discarded jade crusted sword._

 _In the same disavowed and confused way of a child Hanabi stared at the protruding sharpness coming out of her shoulder, at the blood red and thinning as the released river dissipated into a mist that doused them all._

 _Behind her Konohamaru's arms held her to him, breath hot and smelling strongly of iron at her ear as he panted with agony and exhaustion._

 _It took her a moment to realize he had used himself to shield her from the incoming blow, that the sword had come through him and into her, joining them in the sudden flare of pain as Tayuya cursed bitterly and ripped the blade from them both._

 _A harmony of screams as their knees succumbed to the muddy ground, as they collapsed in a heap of tattered breaths._

"Hanabi?" The voice that whispered at her bedside forced her to close her eyes, to better see the past as it was, to brand it into her mind so as to never forget the moment when her world had changed irrevocably from fire to discarded ashes.

 _Sobs, she recognized them because her sister's own voice had wept with such anguish before, at the end of the bamboo rod or the painful training required of their birth. They were ripping out of her in fistfuls, wet as the smears of crimson on her torso and she twisted feebly beneath Konohamaru's stunning weight._

 _Eyes clenched shut against the pain he grunted, lips red with each beat of his heart._

 _It took her a moment to realize it was his name she was sobbing._

"Please." The hand that landed on her forehead was calloused and familiar, and although intended to comfort and soothe only icy silence replied.

"Please, Hanabi. You must get up."

 _She was shrieking. Had she ever made such a noise before. Softly, for Konohamaru knew not how to handle her in a different way, he pushed a dirty blood smeared hand to her lips to quiet her. The eyes that opened to stare into hers were too old, and too tired for the Konohamaru she knew._

 _"It's all right."_

 _Her fingers were white knuckled as they gripped his shoulders, his clothing in tatters and wet with his life. "No! It's not all right! Nothing is right!"_

 _"Get rid of them." Kidomaru's voice muttered with disgust. "They have wasted too much of our time as it is."_

 _Realization stilled her limbs, and with the same whiteness in her knuckles as in her eyes she stared at Konohamaru, the comprehension mirrored there at their approaching end._

 _"Together." It was almost a question but for the fact she knew it to be correct and he smiled through the blood and trembling._

 _They would die as they had done everything else._

 _Together._

"Oh..." The tremble in the familiar voice rippled like a disturbed pond in her mind and she finally let her lashes part, the blank eyes of her Clan shifting to the right to where Neji kneeled, shoulders tight and head bowed in mourning. "Oh, my Little Fire... how I have failed you."

He had arrived in a flurry of magic and hatred, the white hot burning of his ferocity had slammed into the incoming swing of Tayuya's stolen sword.

The world had felt the panting hot breath of his anger, her Warren.

They had stood no chance. Brutal and animal he had destroyed them all, drawing disturbed and terrible cries from the onlooking members of the Rot who had the good luck of not being directly in his line of sight. Entrails had been ripped from abdomens, their leaders had choked on their screams as his magic had strangled and suffocated, as the ground itself had opened like a roaring mouth to consume them leaving no trace.

Tenten, Lee, Shino and Kiba's role had been simple. They had done their jobs, hunted and corralled, captured and defeated the remaining foes.

In the fray Hanabi had lain in the arms of the one she now realized was her beloved, listening for the drum in his chest that no longer sang.

"Where is he?" Hanabi whispered in reply to her Warren's lament. There was no energy in her for sympathy, for loving, for thanking.

Lifting his bowed head Neji surveyed his youngest charge, his second hope, heart twisting in his chest with indecision. The will of the Elder's Council was that he would put forth the kind thing and lie.

Lie to his Little Fire.

Swallowing hard he reviewed the words he had been told to say. That the Shadow's body had been, as was their custom buried deep in the woodland so that his bones would feed the soil, to that he would become part of the green that made their hearts continue to beat.

That he was long gone, out of reach, to be mourned and remembered.

Unsaved.

"Konohamaru is being housed in the Cellar."

Hanabi's gray eyes did not move, nor did her lungs. Still as the corpse she had thought she was enquiring about, her cousin, brother and friend looked steadily back, calculating the cost of what he had just done.

"He breathes still but... it is not good, Hanabi. He will soon...we cannot expect him to last much longer. It has been two nights."

The broken ribs had punctured a lung, the sword had narrowly missed his heart and impaled itself within, missing the major organs that would have made him succumb faster and less painfully to death. Neji had contemplated doing the merciful thing and ending Konohamaru's life. He burned, skin sweat slick and steaming in the coolness of the cellar's darkness as his fever raged. And from behind his closed eyelids he nightmared, crying out in vain for his Opaque.

It was the motionlessness of Hanabi's pale eyes that made Neji's insides tighten and his skin ripple with goosebumps. Determination was not what he was reading on her features, determination was for those who intended to accomplish their goal.

Hanabi was beyond that. It was already done, in her mind.

"Find me the angel bone."

Shuddering so that his spine curved and eyes closed Neji breathed. "No. Hanabi... you cannot. _I cannot._ "

"Find me the angel bone, Neji. Mix it with the waters of the river and make him drink it."

Already the sleep was dragging at her lashes, she fought desperately and he watched as her panicked breaths slowed despite her attempts to remain conscious. "Save him, Neji."

A whole village's harvest, a future plagued with starvation already dawning on the horizon.

Yet, she demanded the most precious thing they knew of, for one life? He let out a breath, anguished and torn.

"Hanabi, I cannot. We cannot do this-" and he froze at the sight of tears wetting her lashes, at the miniature river that flowed down her cheek.

"... _Please_..."

With her breath slow and her cheek still wet with the salt of her desperation the Warren pressed his forehead to hers, lifting his eyes after a moment to Tenten's immobile form watching from the other side of the room.

Wordlessly he rose to fulfill the request he so deeply understood.

* * *

"It's time to go."

He came in like a terror. Clad from head to toe in darkness that was more than the cloak on his shoulders. The urgency in his actions was palpable and thick, even the light of the fire seemed to dance away from him in fear.

Watching from the other side of the room Anko smiled behind the cover of her tunic's high neck, noting with some interest that the only thing within the confines of the chamber to move towards him as opposed to away was her.

Always her.

Pale and dizzy but awake Hinata blinked at his approach to rid herself of the sleep clinging to her lashes, making her eyelids heavy.

"S..Sasuke- I cannot-" She began, face blazing red as she began to explain her inability to walk the distance required to the hidden river caves below the palace.

The words slammed to a stop as he marched forward without pause, scooping her up in an easy armful as though he had done it a million times before and would do so a million times more.

Startled but silent Hinata clung to him, eyes wide and glowing in the dimness of the twilight.

"They are approaching at speed." One of the Chattels explained as Hinata was whisked from the room she had been occupying for what seemed like endless days. In the corridor the shadows leapt forward to ensnare and hug them, only pushed back by the candle in one of the Chattels hands. Behind her the other two stood with bulky bundles tied in twine under each arm and their faces set in determination.

"When are they expected to enter the territory?" Sasuke's steps were rapid and long, behind him the cloak rippled in the wake of his movement, and at his heels Rasu trotted, setting the pace for the rest of the pack nearly running to keep up.

"An hour, perhaps less. It's possible the sight of their destination has re-invigorated them." The Chattel continued from behind Anko hauling Hinata's travel bag on her shoulder.

"This is ridiculous. What in all the Veil moves at that speed?" Anko muttered darkly and mostly to herself but the silence that replied was heavy with contemplation as everyone wondered the same.

Through the corridors windows became not only less common but non existent and the oppressive damp and heaviness of being underground made HInata shift uncomfortably, wide eyes studying the paths.

The brickwork that had made the other corridors seem part of the palace faded, and Sasuke's steps smoothed to a different pattern as he stepped over ruts in the natural stone ground or dodged around the protruding ends of stones that were part of the wall and uninterested in moving for the sake of their passage.

"H..How far down is this river?" Her whisper slid warm against his cheek and he looked straight on determinedly in response for a pause.

"It won't be much longer now."

"I...I only know the basics of sailing- most of the time I ever spent on water was on canoe." Her voice pitched forward nervously, drawing his gaze despite his reluctance to make eye contact in such proximity. "Do you know how to sail?"

The question was out of her mouth the moment the memory flared to life in her head like an explosion of colorful powder in water.

 _The multicolored ocean of the heavens shimmered and danced with glitter and deep bleeding colors in constant movement. The waves twisted them like pieces of cloth. Deep unbelieveable blue, green and teal, gold that shimmered with light, indigo and red that bled to pink between them. The whole of the sea lapped relentlessly at the bone white ivory of the beach, covered in the endless expanse of stones small enough that to Hinata's mind they looked at first like teeth._

 _On those waves his brother had laughed, dragging him from the water's depths as his wings so small and helpless flailed to keep his head afloat._

 _Small. Sasuke had been so small, teeth chattering from the freezing touch of the ocean, it's depth unknown, no star or sun capable of heating it to a pleasureable temperature in the wildness of the Heavenly expanse._

 _The boat had been crowded with sails, too many for Hinata to know or even understand their functions. White and shining against the constant black of space._

 _"What are you doing, little brother?" Itachi's voice rang out with his mirth. The voice of a supposed murderer, traitor, defector._

 _"We are not ducks! Come, come." His hand, so much bigger than Sasuke's had scooped him by the neck of his tunic, plucking him like ripe fruit out of the water to safety._

"I can sail." Sasuke's reply was easy, though his dark eyes watched with calculation as Hinata blinked the memory away, trying to push under the voice of the one who had hurt him so.

Such a kind voice it was.

"Ah, there you are." Kabuto's voice was a welcome distraction as they stepped through from the steadily more bottle necked cave the corridor had become to the sudden nauseatingly wide open maw of a huge cavern.

The candle did nothing to push back the darkness. Nothing at all.

Kabuto's face cracked into a smile at the sight of Hinata's gawking stare. Above a sea of black swam in eerie eternity, sharp jagged stalactites pointed threateningly from the abyss.

Stalagmites rose in response from around their feet, sometimes thick as tree trunks and the thought that they were in a huge mouth made her arms tighten around Sasuke nervously.

The way her heart was beating was the same frantic pulse of a dragonmoth's wings and breathless she watched as Kabuto stepped forward to gather the bag Anko had over her shoulder.

Behind him the glitter of light from the candle in the Chattel's hand and the torch light that Kabuto had burning stuck into the hardened ground sprinkled itself over a black moving expanse of what looked like oil. As her Hawk eyes adjusted however Hinata felt herself suffocating, the air leaving her.

The oil was an endless void, as expansive as the night sky, with the rippling white of light bouncing off it's strangely still face but for the constant lazy current that shifted ever sideways. The blinking of the light's reflection was like a million tiny eyes and sitting anchored to a stalagmite protruding close to a rocky edge the vessel came into view.

It was an ancient thing, with the new timber standing honey yellow against the gray solidity of the original frame. Most of it appeared to have been rebuilt, from the bow to the stern and the single mast dangling with ropes keeping a rolled curl of fabric that was the sail tight at the top.

It was not a large vessel, already sitting low in the watery darkness with supplies her eyes could discern only as shapeless shadows. Everywhere, darkness, shadows, black.

"Hinata."

It should not have startled her as it did, but his voice in her ear had her jumping, fingers tightening in a loop around his neck and shoulder, and it was only when the concern flickered briefly through the features of his face that she realized her breath was coming fast and painful, blurring the edges of the inky world she had wandered into.

"She is hyperventilating." Kabuto's calmness was contrasted sharply by the flutter of his hands motioning for Sasuke to lower Hinata to the ground.

"Breathe." Sasuke's order was soft and lethally sharp in her ear, the perfume of his person overwhelming as she struggled to bring her rapid heart beat and struggling breath under control.

"It is the cave." Anko muttered, throwing the items the Chattels were passing to her into the boat, her robes swirling in the inky dark of the waters. Face tight she fixed Hinata with a look. "You have never been below ground, I take it."

It was formless, the fear. It was everywhere. Darkness with no hope for light, an endless void, a black without stars, without suns without wind. The air was dead, the rock wall leaking fluid that was as rancid to her mind as the Profane's blood.

White knuckled her hands gripped Sasuke's arms, desperate not to be left alone in the terror quickly aiming to swallow her whole.

"If she cannot handle the underground..." Kabuto began carefully and his eyes flickered to Sasuke's. "...perhaps she must-"

Firmly, without giving the blonde a second to finish the sentence Sasuke took Hinata's chin, forcing her face to focus on him.

"Slowly." Curt and to the point he stared at her, eyes bright and intent. "Slowly, breathe, as I breathe."

Shaking visibly, Hinata blinked hard, straining to do as he commanded, following the in and out pull of his breath, the rise and fall of his chest.

The ebony darkness of his gaze clarified, with each inhalation she could see the black as it was, a place where things hid. Secrets, some dangerous, primal and violent, but also gentle, memories tainted with color, with light and music and laughter.

If the darkness of the underground was as the darkness in his eyes she could live through it. She would willingly do so. For the secrets within, for the possibilities that hid somewhere in the shadows.

It had happened without her knowing, without her realizing as it transpired that knowing those secrets was a vital thing inside of her.

As vital as the blood, the bone, the sweat and tears that made her up, that linked her irrevocably to the members of her Clan, to the soil of the Veil, to the salvation of her people.

As vital as all the silver ichor, and the clear tears that they exchanged to keep each other alive.

"There." The whisper of his breath on her face triggered a last deep inhale, a shudder through her spine, and Kabuto's resigned withdrawal towards Anko and the Chattels throwing the last of their supplies onto the ship.

"Do not forget." His hands lifted her partly to her feet and then once more with ease into his arms. "There is nothing in this darkness that can blot me out, I am a star. All I do is burn."

At his words the pulse of silver echoed through his skin, rivulets of light that thundered with magic in twisting patterns of his veins as he stepped into the ink of the underground river and towards the tethered vessel where Rasu now sat patiently waiting for them to board.

"Please," The Chattels called before Hinata could choke out a reply. "Our debt is one we can never hope to repay but it is our wish, and the wish of our Clan that we would come with you, to serve and protect as best we can. It is not enough, but all we can offer." Falling onto their knees they pressed their foreheads to the triangle shape their fingers and thumbs made on the dark rocky stone. "Lord Star, Princess Hinata-"

"No." Sasuke answered while HInata stared in shock. Turning purposefully away he splashed through the shallow water to the ship, heaving Hinata over it's lip and depositing her onto a pile of furs and knitted wool tucked between parcels.

"Please, we beg you Lord Star-"

"If you wish to be of service, find the Valley of the Hawk Eyed."

All three Chattels raised their heads then, grabbing at the order with the same enthusiasm of a child being given a gift. "The Hawk Eyed." One breathed.

"Find them. Inform them of their ..." he paused, glanced at Hinata's pinched mouth and swallowing a smirk continued, "...heiress' whereabouts. They will be thankful for the information."

"Well, if we're offering up passengers." Anko added then, motioning to Kabuto's silent forlorn face with one hand. "You should take Kabuto. His abilities will make the trip easier for Hinata, and safer. Although the maps we provided are well detailed and recent with our exploration over the years it is not the same as having someone who has been through the black of the river."

Stunned, the blonde stared at his friend, mouth open in his disbelief. "Anko- what?"

"No." Surprise fluttered over everyone's faces at the sound of Hinata's firm unshakeable rejection.

"N-no?" Even more bewildered, Kabuto swung around to stare at Hinata, eyes wide.

"No. With the Chattels leaving, who will take care of the women and children? Who will make sure they are well, who can wield magic with ease? You and Anko are needed here, Kabuto." Hinata shook her head, and firmly keeping her eyes from Sasuke she murmured. "I will be as safe as I can possibly be."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Sasuke's hand was lifting a knife from the belt looped around his thigh, slicing through the rope that tethered the vessel to the land without waiting.

Smoothly he lifted himself inside and did not look back, focused on the coming darkness as the river silently pulled them further into the black.

"Be careful!" Anko's call echoed, a neverending song that looped onto itself long after Hinata's waving pale palm disappeared and the shadows swallowed them whole.

In the oppressive silence the Chattels and Kabuto turned to Anko expectantly, and she sighed, eyes fixed on the place where the star had disappeared.

"Did he tell you where they are heading?" Carefully, she slid her eyes to Kabuto who was frowning at her, still disgruntled by the offer she had made of him.

"Yes." Darkly he turned back towards the palace. "Hell's Maw."

The Chattel's spines stiffened at these words, eyes wide as they followed their new leaders within. "But.." one began and Anko shook her head. "Hinata was right, after all. She is safer with him than she would be anywhere else on this dying world. She is likely safer than we are even now, with two threats coming in fast. You three, go and gather the women and children and find somewhere safe for them to hide until we have finished with our uninvited guests. Guard them, in the event of... things going sour. Stay hidden until the danger is passed. Do not engage."

Uncertain but unwilling to argue the three girls nodded and hurried down the hall quickly.

"Even with this to deal with, you would offer me up like some girl with a dowry?" Kabuto finally snapped in their momentary solitude, drawing a furtive mirthless laugh from Anko's throat.

"Oh Kabuto. I did it for your own good, now you know."

"Know what, exactly?"

"That those two are made of the same stardust and veil soil, they are branches on the same tree, petals on the same bloom."

Flushing red, Kabuto glared, unable to reply.

"There was no room for you there." She smiled gently, patting his back hard. "You are stuck with me for now, much your loss."

In the silence they walked, Kabuto frowning and Anko trying not to smile too knowingly until they reached the entrance hall, freezing at the sight of the double doors wide open and the Chattels standing with swords drawn before two tall figures.

Behind them the suns' first light was tainting the heavens a bloody orange and red, smearing the innards of the night across the panorama of the wasteland.

"What-" Kabuto began and froze as the dark blue skinned and feral face of the one creature smiled. Rows upon rows of merciless teeth glinted at them as he grinned and calmly he lifted the enormity of the blade in his hand to his shoulder.

Beside him the more normal looking of the two scanned their faces in turn, his manic grin as unnerving as the rows of teeth on his partner.

"Salutations." He drawled lazily, spinning the wicked scythe in his hand so it hummed rhythmically. "This is Kisame." He jerked his head towards the blue fiend. "And I am Hidan."

Settling slowly into a battle stance he let his smile widen to disproportionate standards bordering on insanity.

"We come in search of a Fallen Star."

At the hiss of Anko's sword drawing from it's sheath Kabuto gold magic sparked to life and solidified into his blade.

"Finally." Hidan sighed deeply. "I have been itching for a good romp."

* * *

In the darkness of the cave, with only the glow of Sasuke's magic and glowing ichor to light the way Hinata glanced back once more, feeling the festering anxiety of leaving those who had become dear to her behind.

"Will they be all right?" It was a silly question, one he could not possibly answer with any certainty but he sighed.

"They will try. And that will need to be enough."

 _ **End of Book One**_


	18. Nightmare Killers

**_Hello. o.o_**

 ** _I offer you chapter one of book two_**

 ** _Do i know what I am doing now, since this is the second installment of a very long fic?_**

 ** _No._**

 ** _Still. Much love to you all and I'm sorry that i can't seem to make these damn chapters shorter._**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

The Amir forest was silent during the nights. In it the creatures of the land hid as they scurried from place to place, inching for their life to reach nutrient dense wide leaved branches clinging to the base of the gnarled trunks of needle covered trees.

Within the silence only the rattle of those needles as the wind caressed them dared speak. Like a thousand metal points the racket passed in ghostly procession with the breeze, and only harmonized at the banks of the river with the water's flow.

Amir was a place of spirits, where the moon shattered as it was glowed brightly in the heavens, dripping its light like melting icing sugar through the tree top canopy so that the forest floor glowed a blue gray of solitude.

By it's light, the men moved with sweat slick brows.

Inching forward step by careful step the four slid through the rustling creak of the resin heavy needles. Steps lithe as the hunters they were, the stench of fear still lifted from their skin in invisible plumes of sweat.

Upon the shoulder of one man the bound and gagged body of a girl child struggled in vain. With her wrists knotted with rope and her mouth filled with cloth she sobbed in muffled terror only more horrible as it broke the stillness in the dark.

Softly, hissing with his panic one of the men glanced at the girl again, scanning the darkness of the wood for signs of danger. "Gods, but would she simply fall asleep."

The other three men threw reproachful looks his way with their steps, moving in slow steady procession through the twisted scaled tree trunks.

"Can we not strike her that she may be silent?" This came again from the same young man, his lip beading with sweat, his thick woolen overcoat soaked at the pits and neck with more of his fear.

"You had best be silent yourself if you know what is best for you." Ahead of him the eldest of the four snapped sharply. Dressed in beaten leather soft and pliable he smelled as the forest and moved in it with more care. Most of his face hid behind the rustling spikes of his thick beard, a thing he never shaved for it hid the twisted ruin of his chin and jaw where a creature had once tried to take his life.

The finis had died by his hand and given his skin for his clothing. It had been large enough to clothe not just himself but also his son and wife. There were few things in the North that would acquire you the title of Headman, but slaying the monstrous finis was one.

Nothing saved you from the sacrifice to the gods however, and for that he loathed this land.

A sound, unlike the rustle of the needle pines and the wind over the girl's sobs nestled in his ears then and freezing he lifted a fist in a signal to stop.

The men watched with terror as their trusted leader slid like honey from a jar into the thickening shadows, muscles tense beneath the softness of his leather garb.

The sizzle and pop of resin oil within branches boiling and cracking had them all poised then for it was a familiar song. Fire burned with character in the north. It consumed with passion and energy, bringing the oils within the hardy wood to smoking heat and explosion.

It scented the air with more than just smoke but fragrance that was as familiar to them as the aroma of baking bread.

In the black of night with only the moon's light the fire's glow became obvious with each step they took. Behind it all the river gurgled and hummed, alive and looking innocent as a slumbering child through the dense foliage of it's banks.

It was a lie however. They knew the waters held dark secrets in their bowels and they trusted it not, even as they examined the creature they had found at it's door.

She was small. Smaller than their women and for that reason they thought at first that she must be a girl child herself. Her hair was a curtain of darkness that melded with the black of the night and the obsidian of the cloak upon her shoulders.

The fire glowed on her face as she poked and shifted it, jumping back when it crackled as though unnerved by it's frolicking life.

A cast iron pot sat upon the embers at the center of the flames, bubbling energetically with a thick liquid that smelled distinctly of nourishment.

Sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees her smallness could not be argued. Neither could her loneliness. Besides a pack of soft tooled leather laying by her booted feet there were no other bodies, no bed rolls, no other signs of life.

They had hit upon a gold mine.

Sweat now beaded on the Headman's own brow in a way that it had not until that moment. He breathed in slowly the mixture of cooking food, of fire and resin and woodland air to try to calm his rampaging heart threatening to tear him apart like a wild creature caged.

It seemed terrible to consider, the sin already leaving a sick feeling over his skin despite his having not committed it but to take this girl and trade her for the one they carried would save his village the life of one of their own.

Who would miss this lonely creature left out here to fend for herself in alone?

Swallowing hard the headman signalled for the men to come closer and together they watched this new development poke at the embers again, long lashes lowered over her eyes and soft features lit dimly by the fire's glare.

"Headman." The question was implied in the word as the man at his elbow gazed levelly forward. Could they do what they were all thinking? Could they take this girl and offer her to the god of the river instead?

"What if she is the Hawk Princess?" This was whispered urgently by the terrified youngster of before, and together the other three glared at him over their shoulders, faces mostly hidden in shadow their disdain was still visible even in the dark.

"They say she wanders with a Star." He hissed stubbornly. "They say they slay the demon half breeds."

"This is not her." The headman snarled, and from behind where the girl sat the crack of a branch sounded, drawing their attention back to the clearing where she now stood, glaring into the darkness with a precision that made their skins break out in goosebumps and their sweat chill.

"Who is there?"

This was no girl child. Her smallness had defied the convention of their northern females but standing the curves of her body became visible even in the weak light. It was a woman's face that looked so calmly at the dark as though she had glared into death's face before and not been bothered by it glaring back.

For a moment worry nagged like a splinter in the Headman's mind but he pushed it beneath as he stepped boldly forward.

Following as always the other three came at his heels, spreading slowly so that they cut off easy access to the forest beyond. Behind the river continued to gurgle and preen like a docile child, now holding this young woman between its own unrelenting current and the four men before her.

"Are you alone, child?" The headman moved elegantly through her camp, eyeing the bubbling soup and the smallness of the pot. There were no bowls, no utensil to count.

The girl stayed still as the doe of the forest in the spring, muscles tight and eyes intent on his shadow dancing by the fire's light upon the needle covered ground.

"Why is the girl bound?" Her question surprised him. Steady despite the danger of four unfamiliar men her face was turned towards the chit who had at this point grown silent to listen as the plot thickened around her. The question set her to twisting on the shoulder of the man who carried her, craning to get a look at the voice who spoke.

"That is none of your concern." The headman cocked his head, brushing his rough calloused fingers through the bristles of his beard as he examined this young lady who refused to raise her eyes to meet him but who seemed unfazed by his presence.

"Are you alone, child?" The question was said more forcefully then, and the young woman finally looked up. Perhaps it was the tone in his voice that brought forth her irritation or perhaps she figured it was time. The pearls of her eyes glowed wide and white as the shattered moon above and the Headman paused, realizing his mistake at the speed of his breaths intake.

No sooner had his eyes widened at the sight of her Hawk gaze than from the shadows behind her a darkness rose in a petal slow flaring of wings. The feathers were a glistening darkness mottled with gray and black and as the Star approached in silence the men let out sounds of fear tangling in their vocal chords.

"She is not alone."

His wingspan dwarfed even some of the trees, immense and sharp as blades the looming presence was magnified by his brilliant dark glare and the unhappy slash of his pursed lips as he surveyed them.

Magic rippled like a crack in a frozen pond and the pressure of the air thickened in waves. Terrified now beyond all reason the youngest of the four let out a cry not unlike that of a child and without so much as a glance at his comrades he turned and stumbled into the darkness of the wood, his heaving breaths leaving behind a roucous.

"Rasu." The Star said and from behind him another shadow materialized, black and monstrous the creature had all three men flinching with it's wide toothed smile. Rumbling like a thunderstorm contained in muscle and fur the creature stepped forward, sniffing the air for his quarry.

Softly, keeping eye contact with the Headman the star sighed, "Fetch."

Snarling and growling the beast shot forward into the dark, the ground vibrating with it's heavy landing and from a distance the man's panicked cries were heard as he realized a nightmare came after him.

Frozen now, with no words to say the Headman and the remaining pair stared at the Star as he folded his black wings and tucked them neatly against his back, reducing his size and stature to a barely manageable size.

"That was the weeping you heard then?" He asked the woman softly and she nodded once.

"They intended to take me as well." She added this after his attention drifted lazy and uninterested and it had the desired effect of snapping his gaze back to the man clearly in charge.

"Hn."

"N-no!" The Headman winced as one of his companions let out a strangled lie. "P-please, Fallen One. We... we beg you-"

"Me?" The star snorted with disdain, turning away again. "It is not me you should be appeasing. I could care less what you do. She, on the other hand." And he let his gaze slide to the young woman before him whose pale face and paler eyes remained resolutely on the bound child. "She is very interested in what you have planned."

"We will leave." The Headman cut in, before his companions could dig them all a grave with their foolishness. "We will go, we care not for a quarrel."

"You may go." The woman nodded. "But leave the child."

A wince so forceful it showed the slash of his scar even beneath the beard flashed through the Headman's features. "I... I cannot do that."

From the distance the scream of the runaway man shattered the stillness, causing all but the Star and his partner to jump.

"Do not make a mess." The Star murmured then, stepping back as the woman moved forward, removing the cloak from her shoulders to reveal a black tunic dotted with silver stars, and belts heavy around her waist, thighs and shoulders with blades.

"I... I do not wish to fight you." The Headman breathed, eyes flickering back and forth between the woman and the Star.

The Star's smile was merciless as it was mirthless. "Then, you should not have lied."

With the screams of their comrade in the forest ringing in their ears and their own terror rising up the men scrambled to defend themselves.

Before them the woman moved, turning from prey to predator in two steps.

* * *

The wind had snapped to slap them the moment they stepped outside. It howled with winter on it's heels and left the sting of the dying bitter summer on their cheeks. Letting out a huff of air Ino pressed her fingers into her face and breathed upon the digits.

The sky above loomed dark and starless, with the handful of usually visible stars hiding behind drifting clouds in shades of soft gray.

Pausing for a moment they studied the shifting pattern of the heavens, wondering again about the girl who had walked through their village for one day and left it never the same.

Sai standing beside her watched as her long neck stretched while she gazed. Lifting her arms up to pop the joints she sighed, flashing him a condescending look before letting her hand land on her hip. "What has caught your eye? What awful thing are you preparing to tell me now?"

Smiling, because he felt it might render him less menacing than his stare Sai shrugged his shoulders, a thing he had seen Shikamaru do on more than one occasion although he was not sure he was doing it right. "You have a very long neck. It's rather beautiful in the moon light."

Ino blinked rapidly, feeling the length of her blonde hair twist and turn in the breeze as she gaped at him. "What? Who told you to say that?"

"No one." Sai frowned. "Do you have an enemy that would want to insult you?"

"No! What? No, I'm... I'm surprised because it's kind." She began strong and ended in a half whisper before shaking her head. "Forget I said anything, let's go."

"Certainly." Sai followed her lithe form up the hill towards the gate, passing the dark houses of the village among the twisting wind chime song that many of the decorated roof eaves provided in the breeze.

"I hate midnight watch." Ino sighed, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs of the sleep so desired. It had been some time since she had a good nights sleep, watch or no watch. With Jirobo housed in her master's home she had felt uneasy, like sleeping with a wild animal only a door down the corridor.

Tsunade seemed unfazed, and had scolded her more than once for her obvious trepidation.

 _"You are a force to be reckoned with, and in his current state he would have a hard time walking out of this place let alone fighting. Be wise and stay out of his way and you have nothing to fear."_

Easy to say, less easy to accomplish.

"I do not like it much myself." Sai tried out the sentence, feeling it around in his ears after it left his mouth. Was it true? Yes, partly. What he didn't like was the dark. The dark was painful. It was familiar and grating, even if it was wide open.

There were few things that Sai disliked, darkness and closed spaces were two of them. They had a way of coming hand in hand.

"Shikamaru is always grumpy before getting relieved." Ino began, lifting a finger to keep track of the many cons of this particular chore. "It's cold enough to lose a finger or two to frostbite."

Sai nodded, contemplating her list.

"You have to wake up at a strange time which takes the whole rhythm out of the next day."

"True." Sai admitted.

"And nothing ever happens." Ino finished as they approached the gate where Shikamaru's silhouette stood against the navy backdrop of the sky, staring stiffly into the wild before their home.

"Sometimes things happen." Sai countered slowly, thinking of the Rot delivering Jirobo, or the Lady Hinata who arrived before him.

Or the many times the Rot Clan had attacked and rendered their guards and warriors more than just farmers and hunters, gatherers and carpenters but men of sword and bow and rawness.

"Yes, sure." Ino nodded. "But none of those things happened on a midnight watch, it's always some other time slot. If something is going to happen I almost wish it would be when I am-"

"Incoming!" Shikamaru's yell was followed by his rapid steps over the walkway and Chouji's lumbering form coming out of the tower in a flash. Thrashing the bell sent the call through the village, shattering the stillness.

Sai cursed low in his throat and grabbed Ino's hand, dragging her roughly up the stairs despite her gawking stare.

"Captain," Sai began, reaching the top of the gate and pausing as his eyes flashed over the clearing before them.

Screams, twisted and unfamiliar echoed through the dark and the sound of snarling reached them ominously through the dark.

Holding the bell now for some quiet while the village roared to life behind them Shikamaru watched the trees, mouth dry and hand at the ready on the short sword at his side.

"Those are horkneys."

"A lot of horkneys." Ino agreed, face white as another scream echoed, it's humanity and desperation making her skin crawl. "Veil and Heaven- what do they hunt?"

"Who." Shikamaru corrected grimly, grabbing a bow and quiver from the ground at his feet. "The question is who."

Sai followed his Captain's example and armed himself, drawing back with the arrow notched and his eyes trained on the still edges of the wood where something might appear.

"Ino." Sai murmured, voice more terse than usual drawing her blue worried eyes to his face.

"If someone comes out of those woods they are going to be in shreds. You should be preparing to use your expertise."

Licking her suddenly dry lips Ino turned and stormed back down the stairs to Chouji's preferred watch spot by the gate chains where emergency supplies were kept.

"Are we going to let them in?" Sai glanced over at Shikamaru poised with his arrow at the dark, brow furrowed.

"With a pack of horkney at their heels?" He didn't let his eyes flash to Sai, focused and determined to slay whatever came crashing through the bracken.

Lips pursed Sai swallowed and hoped Ino stayed downstairs.

In the silence that followed the snarling growls and half barked threats the village gathered at the base of the hill, with women and children now awake and listening to the silence and the racing of their hearts in their chests.

Within Tsunade's home the Chancellor and Healer rose, brow furrowed as she moved to leave, glancing back in time to see Jirobo frowning at her from his bedroom doorway. A shadow of himself, thin and sunken with the crude scar of his missing eye claiming any hope of loveliness from his face.

There was no need for her to give him orders. Even if he tried, the best he would be able to do accomplish in his state would be the front door before collapsing.

Without a word, she left hurrying towards the gate where it seemed so many guests kept arriving.

"Is it over?" Sai whispered as the long silence grew thick and his palms clammy with sweat. From his collarbone to his wrist and up into his neck his body ached with the tension of holding his arrow in place, but he did not shake.

"If it is," Shikamaru sighed deeply. ", then they are dead."

The words had hardly left his mouth before the bushes ripped open. Spat from the forest like a rejected bit of food the three figures crumbled on the ground in a heap, feet tangled by the bush roots.

Frantic, one of the women, for that is what they were, grabbed her fellow and throwing her arm over her shoulder scrambled towards the gate. From her neck and face blood flowed freely, shining violet in the moonlight and she grunted with the effort of her movement.

Behind them both a third drew a blade tucked between her shoulder blades, the whine of the sword on leather as it was bared harmonizing with the snarls coming low and deadly from the darkness.

"Please!" The hoarse voice of the speaker made Shikamaru start, surprised by the roughness of the sound coming from such a young frightened face. "Please, sanctuary! We beg you!"

"Captain. Orders." Sai snapped, bow moving uncertainly from the three figures to the materializing hackles of horkney prowling dangerously forward into the clearing. There were many, at least five they could see and likely more of the pack hidden somewhere behind, waiting in the safety of the shadows cast by the forest canopy.

"Please!" The girl was at the gate then, pounding desperately on the iron wood. Shikamaru could picture the bloody smears her fists were leaving on the bark, how with the stain of Jirobo still dark their doorway would become a place of blood letting and dying.

"Curses." Shikamaru growled. "Take the horkney, as many as you can. If they do not retreat then..."

"Shikamaru!" Ino's frazzled cry echoed from above. "Shikamaru do something!"

Their arrows flew, one after the other slamming home into starving ribs and skeletal animal heads. The sudden burst of blood sent the girl with the sword careening backwards in shock, landing on her bum in a heaving heap that seemed unable to right itself again.

The horkney however yipped and snapped, furious at being outwitted but also not willing to die. With a last furtive glance at their dying brethren they withdrew, rushing back into the safety of the forest saplings.

"Cover them." Shikamaru panted, patting Sai's shoulder as he scrambled down the steps shaking with the mechanical grunt of the gate rising.

Ino was already there, sleeves rolled up and hair pulled back, face set grimly as the girls on the other side collapsed into the entry.

"Heaven Above." Ino whimpered, scrambling to catch them and nearly succumbing to gravity herself under their combined weight. With Chouji's helpful bulk they lowered the two girls to the ground, one already having lost consciousness did not protest but the panting second strained against Ino's hands to look for her companion still outside.

"I have her." Shikamaru called, catching her pleas for someone to help her. Sword hilt in hand but not drawn he rushed forward to where the young woman was struggling to stand, using her sword to leverage herself back to her shaky feet.

"Here." Shikamaru called, throwing her arm over his shoulder. Too weak to protest and bleeding heavily from a tattered wound at her side that was soaking her clothing the girl clung limply.

"Horkney." She mumbled, voice gravelly and torn as the damage to her torso. "So many horkney."

"There are archers. You are all right." Shikamaru soothed, struggling with her into the safety of the wall and as they entered he lowered her down to the ground, glancing back to the forest with her in time to see the glowing gaze of a dozen or so horkney eyes glaring and bidding their time.

Trying not to think too much about how badly that could have gone should the horkney have realized their upper hand in numbers he turned, searching the crowd standing back at the base of the hill for Tsunade, who was storming forward with sleeves already rolled up.

"What happened?" Shikamaru asked ripping off his vest to press against the girl's bleeding side. "What were you doing out there?"

"We... we come from the Scaled Worm's Palace." The girl panted, wincing as he pressed hard. "We are messengers on the way to the Valley of the Hawk Eyed."

Startled, Tsunade paused from where she had crouched beside them, taking Shikamaru's sweater away to examine the wound. "The Hawk Eyed? What have you to tell them?"

"We have news of their Princess." The girl winced, leaning back with eyes closed to breathe through her teeth sharply. "She and the Star have defeated the Worm and set the Rot Clan free."

Wide eyed Tsunade glanced at Shikamaru sharply, tapping the stone on her forehead before letting her magic rise thick and scented as tea tree oil through the nighttime air. "Are you Rot Clan?" she pressed her hand to the tatters of skin coated in blood, too brutal to be even cauterized. Nothing but magic would save her now.

"Yes, but..." The girl heaved a long shuddering breath full of pain, her hoarse and twisted voice a whisper. "We serve the Princess and the Star now."

Lighting up the darkness with the glow of the gem on her forehead Tsunade clenched her jaw, hair flaring around her face as she began to knit the flesh beneath her palm.

"There are not many things that can shock me now. However this, I think has done it."

* * *

The only place that was big enough to house the Vigil was the Altar. Once a place of worship now it was a place of death. Every summers end with the lick of autumn and winter close at it's heels the log built shelter made of a sturdy roof and only two walls was the place where dances and feasts were held. It was on this one night turned into a mourning hall.

With the lights of dozens of candles and even more torches to circle around them and keep the dreadful monsters of the Amir forest at bay the women of the village sat together on the bark woven mats and prayed. Eyes closed but unable to keep themselves from weeping they prayed that the sacrifice they made would be enough.

In the morn after the long dark night they would watch the suns rise. It was only at the end of summer and with the coming chill that the mists rolling from the river covered the needles of the trees in a million watery diamond droplets, setting the forest into sparkling strings reaching to the sky.

In the beauty of the dawn there was no more room for mourning. The tears would be put aside, the candles blown out and at the approach of the men who had delivered the sacrifice they all wept for it would be over, to be forgotten for another year.

Humming softly at the center of the gathering was the eldest of the women and the most severe. With her wrinkled brow furrowed, eyes closed and knees crossed she tapped her long knobbed staff on the ground rhythmically with her long eerie humming song. Only the fluttering whir of insect wings and the hiss of wind through the trees chorused as accompaniment.

The night was at it's deepest, and the thickness of the dark was only accented by the troubling thoughts within all their minds. It did not seem to matter how long this tradition endured, every year without fail the weeping continued and the village struggled.

A sound through the semi silence made a handful of lashes flutter and pairs of eyes blinked curiously in the direction of the path that led to the woodland beyond their village small main road.

Coming down the long dirt scar amongst the grass and stone made homes was a handful of bodies that were partly familiar, partly not.

The creature on four legs dark as black night and with grinning incisors was certainly new.

Cries of alarm echoed through the crowd and women scrambled to their feet, hands wringing at the thick skirts flowing out from their waists, pale cold fingers now not just freezing but shaking in terror.

Only the ancient shriveled thing that was the eldest woman remained unafraid, her gnarled staff rising from it's place across her knobby knees to assist her to her feet.

The women were tall here, but it seemed this was not a permanent thing for the older they got the more stooped and rounded. At the end of the spectrum was the elder who faced off with the incoming men, and the monster unafraid and unrepentant as she glared them down.

"What is the meaning of this?" Her hands fiddled with a myriad of stone necklaces that dangled from her leathery throat, too many not to weigh significantly. Her eyes travelled back behind the bristling creature that herded the beaten men forward to the two quiet shapes watching silently, one with the sacrifice splayed across his arms.

The same one whose wings glimmered in the light of their many candles.

"Heaven Spawn." she breathed in answer to herself.

"Your men need a healer, some may be concussed." a young quiet woman's voice rose forward, and with steps too light to hear she moved into the elder's line of sight. "I believe one may have a broken nose and without it being set he could suffer to breathe."

"You seem to know much about the pain of these men." The elder woman commented, her thin drawn face assessing then wisely. "We are the people of the Amir, enemy of the finis. We have no healers, only our determination."

From beside the young woman the star shifted his wings in a bristle of annoyance, meeting his companions gaze with a look that informed her he had expected this reception. "Fools."

Sighing deeply, the girl moved forward taking the shoulder of the man who held a rag to his face to staunch the bleeding, purple bruises already setting along the undersides of his eyes.

There was no warning, no explanation. One moment her hand was on his shoulder, and the other at his cheek examining his face and making him freeze.

The next she gripped his nose and twisted.

The sound was wet as well as solid, the scream out of his mouth shattered the frightened stillness and set the women to fluttering like pigeons.

"You are in charge then." The star cut in before the elder could open her mouth to scold.

Patting the man on the back lightly the girl moved back to stand with the Star, studying the people carefully. More were arriving from the darkness of the village homes, their tired faces confused and then fearful at the sight of their guests.

"No." The elder woman admitted, though the reluctance was clear. Her gaze fell heavy on the bearded man who had attempted to withdraw from them in the woods. "Headman Oicken. Would you care to explain this all?"

Before the bruised and battered headman could even formulate a sentence the Star charged on.

"We found the four men wandering in the woods towards the river with a bound and gagged child." He motioned to the sleeping girl in his arms, hardly five and light enough to carry with one arm. "After attempting to take one of my own party and finding that harder than they had anticipated they were educated and as a result, we are here."

Realization seemed to dawn on all the faces in the crowd and with his head hung low Oicken sighed.

"The child is my grand daughter."

Besides Rasu's snort of disbelief the rest of the watching crowd stayed still. Only the light in the candles danced by the curling touch of the breeze.

"The river god demands sacrifice. We offer a child once a year for the sake of keeping all the others alive. It is a fair draw, and my family was unlucky this day. When we saw you..." he drifted off, unable to look Hinata in the eye. "I saw a chance to save her."

"River god." The disdain could not be more palpable from the Star's lips and Hinata only frowned, studying the headman intently.

"We offer our apologies." The elder woman bowed low and at her cue so then did the rest of the village, some trembling from head to foot and still wary. "We are a poor village and cannot offer much more in return, Fallen One. What more reparation do you seek?"

"You cannot sacrifice the child." Hinata's voice was steady and unshakable. Behind her Sasuke restrained the urge to roll his eyes in exasperation.

" _Hinata_."

"Where is the river god?"

Glances were being exchanged, furtive looks of curiosity and wariness followed by the hiss of the villagers murmuring amongst themselves.

The elder frowned, leaning on her staff heavily after so many hours of kneeling on the cold dirt ground. "What does this concern the Star and Princess Hawk?"

Annoyance flared fast on Hinata's face then and Sasuke had to focus on keeping his face from shifting to a smirk. Quickly, to keep his lips occupied he asked, "You have heard of us?"

"You are all we hear about in the region. Your trek through the land is on all the lips of traveling traders. But we know nothing of Hell's Maw and cannot offer information in payment for your services."

"S-services?" Hinata surprised even herself with the sound of her repulsion. "We do not offer services."

"Are you not mercenary nightmare hunters, slaying monsters for information you seek?" The elder frowned. "It is what we were told."

Sasuke turned, dumping the child into the arms of the first man closest to him. "Rasu." A click of his tongue and he began to head back towards the forest, finished with the conversation so taxing his patience.

Hinata ignored his departure, frown furrowed as she stared at the elder. "Where is the river god?"

The murmurs continued, eyes shifted and the elder and Headman exchanged a long look. From a distance now Sasuke cursed under his breath in annoyance.

"It lives where the river forks, only a handful of leagues from where you made camp." The Headman finally said, ignoring the sharp glare the elder woman shot in his direction. "On the island at it's center, there is it's lair."

Wordless as her companion, Hinata turned and followed her Star, disappearing after him into the darkness.

* * *

"Breathe deep."

The blood still stained her mouth from her last bout of coughing. It did not take a healer of Tsunade's caliber to know she had been at death's door. Hanging on by her fingernails at the threshold. The other two girls watched as the last of Tsunade's magic faded in a wave of sparkles, sighing deep like a summer breeze before leaving them in the warmth of the crackling fire from the grate.

Standing with arms crossed and brow furrowed Shikamaru watched the proceedings, with Sai glued to his side and Ino washing the blood from her hands in a basin by the fireside, shaking her head as she did so.

"Will she be all right?" One of the girl's companions whispered, eyes anxious over the bloody smears and dirt smudged on her face. "Can she breathe now?"

"Yes." Tsunade replied, face pale beneath the sheen of sweat that coated her skin. The jewel usually glowing from her forehead looked dull in comparison to the crimson sheen of blood on her hands and tiredly she wiped at her face with her forearm. "She breathes, but I must say the fact she is doing so is a sort of miracle."

"Thank you." Together the two conscious newcomers gazed at the healer with earnest faces. "Thank you for saving her."

"Do not thank me. I am afraid it was largely a selfish move." Tsunade muttered, surprised by their genuine eyes and emotional hands clasping together. This was a Rot Clan unlike any she had ever seen before. There was not a speck of dirt to be found upon them, their clothing was well made if torn by the attack and besides the fact that they had fought off a pack of starving horkney they looked human and calm.

If you ignored the tatters of their voices and the story they brought with them. A story which Tsunade was very interested to hear indeed.

"You say you are of the Rot." The Chancellor murmured, pushing herself slowly to her feet and motioning to Ino with a nod she settled on the dining room bench behind her. Ino slipped from the room quietly, to check on a curious Jirobo housed only one floor above them and to gather food and water for the weary travelers.

"Yes." Looking around slowly the girls ended their examination of their surroundings by looking intently at each other, transmitting information rapid fire through their gaze.

"We... we know that our interactions with your village have hardly been amiable."

Shikamaru's minute cough was choked on sharply at Tsunade's glare. Beside him Sai remained silent and still, flat dark eyes focused with a laser beam of force on the creatures that had wandered into their home with teeth at their heels.

"We are always looking to improve our relationship with those not of our village." Tsunade replied carefully. "I would very much like to know why you say you now serve the Star and the Lady Hinata. Did you see them? You saw a star with your own eyes?"

"Yes." All three girls answered in unison, the one carefully placed on the stone ground closing her eyes with the effort, tunic still stained with blood from her recent bump with death. Surprised that she was even awake Tsunade placed a hand on her forehead to quiet her.

"The Lord Star is the one who gave us back our minds and burned away the poison of the Scaled Worm's blood." Only one remained focused on Tsunade, her gaze intent and heavy with meaning as she looked back. "The monster used our bodies for tests, made us consume of his blood and had us forget ourselves." She looked away finally, at the touch of her friend's hand on her back. "We are half of who we used to be now. Our Clan told us our names but they mean nothing to our ears. We are, and likely will forever be Chattels."

"Chattels?" Tsunade frowned, and started at the sound of Sai whispering suddenly beside Shikamaru, voice flat as slate. "Chattel... means a thing owned."

"The Worm tricked our Clan into hunting the star, knowing that under his might there was no chance for victory. They were defeated, as... I am pained to say they should be. The Lord Star, the Princess Hinata have too much good to do in this world to be stopped by so feeble a need as those of our Clan. Had we asked for their help..." The one girl drifted off, exhausted by the story so that she closed her eyes against the sorrow.

"They arrived at the Mountain of the Worm, where the rest of our Clan had been enslaved as downpayment for the help the Worm said to have provided our warriors. It is there that we met them."

Picking up where the last left off the supine Chattel continued, voice raspy with thirst and exhausted. "They defeated the Worm, freed our people from his spell, and the Star bled himself to rid us of the poison in our bodies."

Lips parted slightly as she took in this information Tsunade let out a long breath. "So, the Hawk Eyed had more than just fairy tales to fuel their strange desires."

"The Hawk Eyed are where we journey." The Chattels continued. "Their Princess goes with the Star even now further North, in search of Hell's Maw. In search of a cure."

"A cure?" Tsunade frowned then, as did Shikamaru.

The Chattels nodded as one, all three pairs of eyes opening and glowing by the light of the fire they fixed themselves upon the healer. "A cure for the Rot that threatens our world."

Sai let out a heavy breath, pushing from the wall with tense muscles. Clipped, and dry he stared at them. "Impossible. The world is ending. Worlds end, it is the way of things. Death comes for us all."

"Does it?" The Chattel who had just so recently faced the possibility of her demise blinked slowly in the dark, feeling with a sort of reverence the beating heart within her chest. "Sometimes, it can be delayed."

Opening his mouth again Sai moved to say something else and Tsunade raised a hand to stop him.

"So, you were tasked to take word to the Hawk Eyed. I fear you have a long ways to go. You will face many more things than the horkney, if you are determined to reach your goal."

"We have already faced many a nightmare." The Chattels replied, and their eyes flickered to each other, reminiscing.

"The wasteland heat, the deadly sand."

"The silence of the wood, the barren forest of ancients."

"And before that, the beasts."

Shikamaru finally let out a long breath, his mind rapidly accessing all this information so difficult to come by in their isolated world. "Beasts? What beasts?"

The haunted look that passed over the Chattels faces was darkened by the question.

"They came at the downfall of the Worm, and with Princess Hinata still weak from the battle we urged the Star to take her away. She was and still is the Scaled Worm's desire since her arrow locks him in his monstrous shape. Before they arrived we set our Lord and Princess North, through the rivers that rush beneath the mountain's heart."

"The creatures move faster than any animal we know. They arrived calm and refreshed, as though the wasteland trek had been but a stroll."

"They wanted the Star, and so we fought them..." The Chattel drifted off, shuddering. "One blue and silver like the fish of the rivers but with teeth like a legion of spears."

"The other looked a man but inside something rotten lives." The girl speaking shook her head. "We were no match. Not even with Lord Kabuto and Lady Anko to help."

Surprise flickered on Tsunade's face. "So then..? How come you to be here, alive?"

"They did not want us." The Chattels murmured together, a choir of morose sigh. "They wanted the Star, and when the Worm told them of his departure they too departed after conversing with a white clay songbird."

"A songbird?" Shikamaru's face was a myriad of confused wrinkles.

They nodded. "The creatures were familiar to the Worm. He called them dogs of the Apostate. To the bird whose voice we did not recognize they referred to as Captain Itachi."

"Lord Kabuto says he is the Fallen One's brother."

Pushing the heel of her palm into her eyes for a moment Tsunade stood, watching as the color drained from Shikamaru's face, his mind working rapidly to put all of this together into a picture of the end.

"The Apostate, and the Vindicator, moving through the realm." Tsunade whispered. Face tense despite the paleness Shikamaru nodded. "Ender of Worlds. It makes sense now that Lady Hinata did not bring him into the village. Was she protecting him, or us?"

"But what is this about looking for a cure?" Tsunade blinked rapidly, eyes focused elsewhere as she thought. "How does that fit?"

"They came looking for him." Shikamaru whispered sharply then. "After the Rot Clan left Jirobo at our door." He could see now the blue skin of the monster whose politeness had unnerved and the flashing craze of the other's eyes, more frightening than his companion's strange appearance.

"Jirobo." Tsunade murmured then, remembering him once more. "These are his kin. We have to tell him so."

"Stop!" Ino's voice in the hall made all but Sai turned to look at the door, startled when it was flung open half heartedly and a thin and rankled Jirobo tumbled in, breathless and shaky enough to collapse against the dining room table, eyes freezing on the three girls by the fire.

"Forgive me, Master Tsunade- he is stronger than he appears." Ino gasped, gripping the frame as she gasped for breath.

"Jirobo." Tsunade sighed with resignation, opening her mouth to speak only to be cut off by his stunned wide eyed stare, focused behind her on the three uninvited guests.

"Sister."

"Ino." Tsunade shook her head, flopping onto the bench again. "Please, bring me something to drink. Stronger than tea, mind you."

* * *

The fire that had been lit in the grate was a large one. Larger than he thought was needed although he was not going to complain. The chill was seeping into his bones in ways he had not thought was possible for a star. The wind ripped at the heat of his heart and blood and when he looked at Izumi all he could see was the worry in her eyes, shoving for room around the affection that burned ever brightly.

Above the sky was black as the endless voids of space. The moon hid behind clouds that shifted eerily in the wind, hiding and showing the remaining stars in an endless game of peek-a-boo.

Memories of his brother, chubby cheeked and small flickered through his mind. Dusty bits of his past life filled with Sasuke's delight at Itachi's face appearing from behind his hands, his one stubborn tooth peeking through the pink gum, the downy puff on either shoulder a laughable attempt at wings that would with time become beautiful and deadly in spades.

"Are you warm enough?" Izumi asked. He smirked a little, feeling as her body wriggled beneath the cover of his cloak and pressed further against him so that there were no curves, no softness of her that he did not feel intimately.

"Once upon a time I used to ask you this question." He whispered, ignoring the pain of his toes cold in his boots for the pleasure of her legs straddling his waist.

"And I used to answer." Izumi replied, pressing her lips to curve of his jaw. "I was honest."

He was freezing.

Inside him the fire of his life flickered and fluttered with tiredness. It was possible for fires to burn out. They scorched and heated they rose and roared and when their anger and fury was finally free they died. It was the way of things, it was the way of stars.

He had known that his habits and the friends he kept would accelerate the burn, but there had been no way to know how quickly he would diminish. Time it seemed, was catching up to him.

"I am very warm." He lied and smiled against her forehead while he watched the fire dance in the ancient grate. Of all the ruins they had found on their northward journey these were the ones that had begun to take a real shape. You could see the other walls of a courtyard, the curving arches broken in the middle like some giant had taken a bite out of their brick work. The roof long gone had made the steps decay and the second floor of the abode collapse so piles of rock huddled together against the snow.

Only the fireplace remained unshakable, made of some hard rock that glinted black and blue and violet in the light of the flames. It remained resolutely standing amongst the chaos. The only survivor of it's world's end.

Deidara had left. His steps could be seen heading out into the tundra in search of solitude to create his artful birds. The white beauties would glint pearly and dead in his hands by the light of the moon when the clouds allowed her to peek and only when he breathed upon them would they blink themselves awake.

It was a skill he had developed long before meeting Itachi decades past. Along with this skill he had developed other fascinations, namely ways to pour his magic into the clay that formed the birds, to make them not only fly but die in suicide missions that wrecked havoc through the lands he visited. Their white shapes would explode and devastate enemies or those he chose would be a good fight.

It was not uncommon to find such men. Wielders of blades that sang and who made their living from destroying others sometimes for money, food and a roof over their heads such as Kisame and others for the sake of spilling blood like Hidan.

None of these creatures had been able to stand against Itachi's might in battle however, succumbing to the wild magic of the heavenly realm only to face a final question. _"Fight for me and I will keep you living long past the natural span of your life, or die now. I promise glory in your death either way. Which shall it be?"_

Only a handful had chosen life in servitude with the promise of a battle to end all battles as their end and they were Itachi's chosen band.

Deidara had not been the only one to wander however. Sasori, sensing a chance to get himself a moment of peace had escaped into the tundra as well without citing a word of explanation. It did not matter however, Itachi knew him through and through and out of all his followers it was Sasori who craved the blood he provided the most.

There would be no leaving his side, not until death took him. Addiction was woven into the marrow of his bones and what best to be addicted to than the ichor running in an angel's veins?

In the solitude Izumi shifted, listening to the creak of the wood in the fire and sizzle and pop of the snow evaporating where it came into contact with the heat.

Once upon a time she too had worried she would evaporate in Itachi's presence. He burned too bright for her, too urgent. Now her mind festered with worries of a different sort.

"Will you kiss me?" Whispers in the dark were their best loved language, furtive breathless gasps and strangled cries. Loving through the years had had to be a skill they perfected in near silence.

Smiling still Itachi complied, dragging his fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck before pressing his mouth to her own. Despite the years she still tasted sweet, and dangerous as a blade on skin. It was humbling having his heart out of his body, capable of making choices of her own accord.

Having a bold mind of her own.

"I can taste the lie on your lips." She whispered, the brush of her words against his skin making him close his eyes in defeat.

"Itachi, we must slow down. You must rest more."

Slowing meant perhaps not reaching the door to hell before his body weakened and he was unable to accomplish his task. Slowing meant facing his brother who chased after him even now. Slowing meant dying in her arms.

If only she knew how much he wished he could do as she begged.

"Your realm dies a little every day." He sighed and shuddered as her lips slid slow down his neck, her hands finding places on him that always made his heart beat faster. "Every day I fail to accomplish my goal. I cannot. You know I cannot."

Fingers fluttering over her cheeks he winced, eyes still closed before bringing her to him again, first her lips soft and warm and familiar, then her cheeks where her affection exploded on his tongue in citrus sweetness spiced with mourning.

The heat of her rushed through, sizzling the tendons on his tired legs, burning the blood in him so his toes finally thawed and he sighed both at the pleasure of comfort and the feel of her hands warm against the smoothness of his stomach, rummaging among their clothes.

"I know." She always relented, always came to agree with his decision if the merits were too great to ignore and for that he was going to be forever grateful.

"I pray he hurries." Her kisses grew urgent, as though the press of her mouth to his skin would aid Sasuke in his quest. "I pray he reaches us before we get to our goal. I pray he stops you."

She did not speak again, but moaned in muted strangled pleasure as he kissed her back. Even as he did so, he tried not to think about the sin he was committing in hoping that her words would be true in the end.

* * *

"This is not our problem."

"I do not recall saying it was." Hinata's reply was soft as ever, although the understated grit could not be ignored. Marching back towards their camp was going to take half the time it took to get to the village. Sasuke's speed often had a lot to do with his mood and his current mood was boiling.

"Hinata." His glance was sharp as the fletching on her arrows and she kept her eyes down to avoid being slayed by it. "You do this every time."

A long pause followed in which Rasu whined about his dinner and Hinata patted his shoulder now standing at eye level by her side.

"Has this happened enough times for you to use the phrase _every_ _time_?"

Incredulous, Sasuke clenched his teeth and continued forward despite wanting to turn around to take her by the shoulders and shake her.

"Just three days ago I was pulling you out of that giant rotting lizards throat." Icily he shoved through the last of the trees to where the embers of their fire still glowed, their dinner forgotten.

Carefully, as delicately as plucking petals from a bloom Hinata gathered her bow and quiver tucked neatly in it's oilskin casing from beneath a prickly bush. "If...if I do recall..." She began slowly, feeling his scorching glare on the back of her neck. "I was only in the lizards throat because you forgot to order Rasu back when I was going to take the shot."

Rasu keened softly then, a little hurt to be thrust into the argument.

"I overestimated your pet's intelligence." Sasuke snapped watching as she slid the quiver over her head and tightened it's strap. "Where are you going?"

Blinking rapidly, as though surprised by the question Hinata looked at him, swallowing any words that might have come up to defend herself.

" _No_."

"They will just bring her back. I cannot let them sacrifice a child-"

"This is _not_ our problem." He snapped, arms crossed to show his position absolutely.

"Fine." Stubbornly Hinata clenched her fists, attempting to glare back and failing as she always did.

"Fine?" He was too surprised not to ask, and she nodded.

"I will go on my own."

And without another moment she pushed back towards the river bank where their vessel lay tethered, serene and restful in the moonlit water.

Rasu rose, looking back and forth between Sasuke and where Hinata had disappeared, his indecision so pathetic Sasuke grimaced openly. Grabbing his cloak and hers he stormed down to the river bank, fuming like a mountain about to explode.

* * *

"I know you do not like this." Hinata began conversationally.

The river sighed and smacked her lips at them as they docked on the smallish island where the water forked and in the moonlight she could see the flick of his eyes as they lifted to her from tying off the mooring rope to the sapling on the shore.

"Is that so." The flat reply was more than just irritated and she sighed, following Rasu as he hopped from the vessel and sniffed the air for intruders, ears wide as palms.

"Y..yes. I know you feel a sense of... urgency." She followed as he turned, cloak swirling around him like smoke. Tugging at her own cloak feebly to keep it from tangling in the branches of the trees she quickened her step to keep up.

"You are the one that is concerned with saving this realm. All these detours have hardly got us closer to that goal."

For a moment the silence wore on with HInata struggling to reconcile his truth with the one that she knew also existed. "But... we saved lives."

The sigh that escaped him was full of a choked exasperation that stung in her ears. Rasu hung back at Hinata's side as they hiked, avoiding the cloud of frustration that was the Uchiha ahead.

"It must be exhausting, being so kind all the time." Sasuke finally growled, shoving branches aside with the edges of his wings and setting droplets of sap scented water to splash on their heads, earning a disgruntled yip from Rasu.

"Sometimes." Hinata allowed feebly, pressing her lips thinly together.

"There." Sasuke said, deciding he was going to ignore the possible jab at his temperament with her last comment. Through the trees the clearing came into view. Rising above the water line in rocky uneven ledges it lifted high until the trees cleared or became too small to challenge the ruined outcrop of what looked to have once been a citadel.

The thickness of the air alone hinted at magic on the wind. Nothing moved, not the silky twists of mist through the dark, wrapping lavishly around stones and the tall broken pillars of the tower long cut off at an angle on it's fourth floor.

The forest had creeped upon it, and lichen clung to the rows and rows of narrow archers windows in clumps of hairy green. The steps leading to the entrance were cracked, dusted in the hard resin filled needles of the trees and the stains of drying water from times the river had flooded and receded with the suns' brilliant light on the hotter months.

Letting out a breath to expel any misgivings regarding their task the Star shifted, fingers flexing on his sword hand itching for the hilt of the blade.

"What do you see?"

Hinata's gaze had grown distant already and with her bow strung and gripped tightly she could have been part of the wood. Still from head to foot she gazed, moving her pale eyes slowly from area to area.

"Nothing peers from the windows, I see no traps but if there were any they would be hidden by the passing of the years, even from my eyes."

A sob, muffled by the rocks echoed from within, and like a switch had been flicked the air lightened to normality and the mists began to creep, sweeping as the wind rustled. Time had restarted, and nothing but an abandoned piece of crumbling stone stood in their path.

"It knows we're here." Sasuke whispered, unable to suppress the barest lift of his mouth in a smirk of anticipation at an incoming battle.

"Someone weeps." Hinata breathed, body poised to move forward but despite her earnest desire to run inside the hair on the back of her neck was rising on end, a chill that seemed unreasonable considering her cloak creeping into her bones.

"Someone baits." Sasuke corrected, eyeing Rasu's flattened ears and the rising tufts of fur around his head and shoulders.

Moving confidently albeit slowly he began to climb the shaky steps, watching as cracks in the stone shifted uneasily beneath their feet. Above the moon deigned to show her face between the clouds, gazing with it's scarred left side as they approached the looming tower with no hint of sunlight to ease the tension. Dawn was still many hours away, light would not be coming from the sky to dispel the trepidation rising between their shoulder blades.

The entrance gaped wide and dark, bringing forth memories of the catacombs beneath the Scaled Worm's mountain, complete with the trickling murmur of the river rushing on either side and warily Hinata glanced at Sasuke, throat tight.

They had not spoken about the darkness they had faced within the bowels of the mountain pass but Sasuke's black eyes sliding to meet hers communicated that the same memories were rising to the surface of his mind as he stared into the pit that was the citadel entrance.

"Neji says to be brave one needs fear." Hinata murmured then. "Anything else is foolishness."

Unable to bring forth a response with the knots twisting in his gut Sasuke stepped forward.

"Please, let us not be fools." With a white knuckled fist on Rasu's fur Hinata followed into the dankness of the citadel, leaving behind the meager touch of the moon's light.

Air moved strangely in the shadows and ahead Sasuke paused to let his eyes adjust to the dimness. Light filtered in from above where three of the four floors had been shattered. Gaping holes in growing wideness echoed each other ever upwards to the black sky where only a pie shaped slice of moon peered in.

Tangled roots of trees had entrenched themselves on the stone of the walls, cracking the brickwork and further destabilizing the structure.

Pillars rose around them in uneven increments amongst piles of rubble that was one part citadel stone and one part bones.

Letting out a breath that twisted in her chest like a knife Hinata leaned into Rasu painfully. The skulls were broken, mandibles removed and eye sockets cracked, femurs askew amongst dirty rock piles, the delicate necklaces of spine thrown carelessly as though discarded in haste.

Clothing rotted snared on jagged edges of debris, in dusty piles with clumps of hair. It was unnerving that there was no smell but the dusty dryness of white flecks that rose with each of their steps, catching into glittering sparkles by the weak moonlight.

"Where is it?" Hinata whispered finally, lowering her hand from over her mouth where a sob had been firmly stopped.

Sasuke let his eyes sweep the disaster, flexing his fingers again as he assessed the space. The light filtered down in weakening increments but a few steps before him the strongest of the moonbeams pooled on a shattered tile surface.

A coat of arms had once been clear among the tiles, it's smears of purple and gold barely discernable beneath the dust. Idly he pushed at the dirt with his boot, studying the insignia with a frown as Hinata and Rasu inched in behind him, tense as foxes at the scent of a hound.

"Might it have hidden at the feel of your magic?" Hinata whispered, nerves making her glance over her shoulder and around again. "Will we have to hunt it?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, only to freeze as the purple and gold of the insignia triggered something in his mind. A memory, faded and worn with years of neglect stuttered to arise in his mind's eye. Had he seen this coat of arms before? The roundness of the symbol, the sharpness of the lines...?

"S..Sasuke?" Hinata's hand on his forearm made him turn, realization slamming home just as the ground gave way beneath them all.

The crash of the bones and stone collapsing beneath their feet was like no sound they had ever heard before. A combination of breaking dry timber, shattering pottery, collapsing dry clay. Hinata's strangled shriek and Sasuke's grunted discomfort were drowned out by the chaos, wrapped up nicely in the howling wail of Amaterasu who was the least impressed by the sudden collapse of the ground beneath him.

Puffs of dust lifted in the darkness lit only by the slivers of moon that dared pierce the black. Coughing and tasting what was most likely the remains of long murdered children Hinata scrambled to get up, and froze as her hand slammed to a stop on the hard smoothness of Sasuke's warm chest.

Looking down she stared, realizing that either leg was around his waist and for all intents and purposes she was in a very compromising position.

The choking gasp was less to do with her breathless fall then as she scrambled, and failed to gather herself away from him, the tangle of her cloak beneath his pinned body making it impossible to remove herself.

"Stop. Squirming." The bite in his tone was as vicious as ever and freezing, she tried to gather her breath, swallowing a mouthful of the bitter tasting debris coated air into lungs no longer working.

Her heart was doing a fine job behaving as a rabbit however.

"I...I can't get off. I'm so sorry-"

"I realize that. Stop moving and I can-" Sasuke froze, one hand burning where it rested on her thigh as his attention was drawn to movement, dark and sinister from behind.

Twisting as much as he could with her weight pinning him he stared at the dark and after a long still moment where neither breathed the black stared back.

The glint of wet eyes shimmered from the puffs of white bone dust and behind Hinata Amaterasu growled low and furious, hackles rising and ears flat to his head.

Frozen in place HInata stared, fingers tight on the knife at the small of her back and ready to slice through her cloak she breathed in a tiny mouthful of air and squinted.

"It...it's a child, Sasuke."

"No." His disagreement was disregarded as he tugged her cloak free and she stood swiftly, her weight and warmth leaving him suddenly cold as he shoved himself fluidly to his feet behind her. "Hinata-"

"It's all right. We're here to help you." Hinata extended a hand slowly forward at the shadow, watching as the dark shape cocked it's small head, eyes blinking slowly in response to her gentle tone.

"I promise, we just want to get you out of here. Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Hinata." Sasuke snarled, hand twitching at his side with the hiss of electricity and magic. "I can feel it. It is not-"

The ripple of power was like being hit by a heatwave in the middle of winter, hot enough to make the world dance and the light shimmer.

Stunned, Hinata stared some more, mouth slowly falling open as the small delicate silhouette rose and grew taller.

And taller.

And taller still, making her head crane back painfully on her neck, blinded by the brightness of the moonlight that hung behind it, brightening the decaying clumps of hair that clung limp and rotting from the skeletal head.

"Oh Veil." Swallowing, Hinata sighed. "I wish you weren't right all the time."

The scream the thing let out was horrific and loud pitched, spraying the dusty brittle world in a disgusting stream of spit.

Sasuke shook his head, the flash of his sword coming to life in his hand brightening the cave so that the creatures face glared down at them, gaunt mouth cracked and rotting, eyes the glow in the dark orange of heathen demons.

"Honestly. I do as well."

* * *

 _ **TBC**_


End file.
